'High number' of lorries in crashes says Chalker
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.IllE NUMBER of heavy goods vehicles involved in motorway accidents is proportionately extremely high, Transpi)rt Minister Lynda Chalker has revealed.
Between 1982 and 1984, 20 per cent of recorded accidents on motorways involved heavy lorries, compared with five per cent of recorded motor vehicle accidents in the UK.
The figure for trunk roads in England in 1983/84 was 12 per cent.
Although the figures show a high proportion of HGV involvement in motorway accidents, the number of accidents that heavy lorries have been involved in on the M1 between 1979 and last year has dropped dramatically, despite a slight increase in the total number of accidents.
Transport Secretary Nicholas Ridley revealed that only 251 HGV were involved in accidents on the motorway last year, compared with 413 in 1979.
The number of buses and coaches involved in accidents, all involving personal injury, had dropped from 27 to 26 in the same period while the figures for light goods vehicles rose from 105 to 112.
Overall last year there were 1,851 personal injury accidents on the motorway, compared with 1,811 in 1979.