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The need for speed

7th October 2004, Page 28
7th October 2004
Page 28
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Page 28, 7th October 2004 — The need for speed
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

We've all grown up with the slogan "Speed Kills". But forcing trucks to

crawl along also causes a risk to life and limb. Dominic Perry reports.

If you ask virtually any transport company in this country they will be able to name at least one single carriageway road where the current 40mph speed limit is redundant. A quick straw poll in the CM office revealed a hat-full of suggestions, including the Al, A9, A36.A96 and A449 -and they were thought up in all of 30 seconds.

For car drivers, there are few things more frustrating than sitting in a long queue of traffic at 20mph below the speed limit. Time crawls along like treacle and the destination never seems to get any closer. For some, the frustration is too much and car drivers attempt risky overtaking manoeuvres,sometimes with tragic consequences. Talk to the police off the record, at least and they'll tell you that even they may turn a blind eye to trucks hitting 50mph on appropriate roads. There are even rumours that a group looking at the safety of one of Scotland's more problematic roads has no objection in principle to increasing the limit there: it's just politics that gets in the way.

Putting the Brake on

This is where we come to the stumbling block. Mention the idea of increasing the speed limit to 50mph and this response from road safety campaign group Brake is typical: "Where drivers' frustration and dangerous overtaking are serious problems, increasing the speed limit for trucks is not the answer. Speed limits are put in place for a reason-to reduce crashes caused at speed. This is particularly crucial for large vehicles which, when involved in a crash, are more likely to kill and seriously injure because of their size and weight.

"Drivers need to be more patient and to be more aware of the dangers of overtaking. We need to break this idea that every journey must be done at breakneck speed."

Although when we phoned Brake to talk about speed limits and were outlining what we meant, we gave the A9 as an example. "Oh, I know that road, my father lives up that way and I've been on it many times," was the knowing response. Still, the mantra 'Speed Kills' is trotted out time and again whenever this subject is broached. But, pause for a minute and look at the most recent government statistics on these subjects. The Analysis of Speed 2002 Survey shows that almost 70% of HGVs break the speed limits on single-carriageway roads in non-built-up areas. Despite this huge chunk of the industry flouting the law,the past 10 years have seen a drop of almost 30% in the number of HGVs involved in fatal road accidents (according to the report Road Casualties Great Britain 2003).

Something doesn't quite add up with these figures. Surely, if trucks are speeding the accident rate involving trucks should be going up, or at least maintaining the same level? If that's not the case, then allowing the remaining 30% of trucks to hit 50mph on appropriate roads should not be a problem.

Add to this the results of another government study, Excessive Speed as a Contributory Factor to Personal Injury RoadAccidents,which examined data compiled between 1999-2002. It concludes: "The proportion of accidents where excessive speed was cited as a contributory factor was highest for accidents precipitated by two-wheeled motor vehicles (21%) and lowest for those precipitated by HGVs (9%)." It adds: "In the case of HGVs... excessive speed is a less significant factor in accidents precipitated by such vehicles than it is for all accidents in which HGVs are involved."

Accident rate is falling

To draw a conclusion from this raft of statistics,

it seems that although the majority of trucks are breaking the speed limit on single-carriageway roads, the overall accident rate is falling and, where accidents do occur, speed is unlikely to be the cause.

The fact is that trucks are getting safer. Look at the features on a modern artic and compare them with the vehicles running when the speed limits were created. They are worlds apart.

ABS, EBS, ESP and roll-over protection have all massively improved stopping distances of heavy trucks (see panel), despite the dramatic increase in payloads. Compare the braking performance of a 2004 Volvo artic tested at 44 tonnes with that of a 1964 Mercedes at 32 tonnes. The Volvo stops in 14.3m whereas the Mercedes comes to a halt in 18.6m — an improvement of some 30% despite a payload increase of 25`)/0. •

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