'Shouldn't goverment turn a deaf ear and give safety of life priority?
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6 Th
e British are often referred to by our Continental cousins as mad. What better example of our madness than the fact that we are the only country in the world which has a regulation which prohibits millions of drivers from making their vehicles safer—and in doing so contravenes an act of Parliament.
This is government gone mad. Why? The Fact is that we are the only country in the world whose regulations prohibit the fitment of a back alarm on a vehicle unless it falls into the category of two tonnes gross vehicle weight or more. Why put a block on safety, on saving lives? Because vehicles below that limit— described by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders as illogical and arbitrary—might cause a noise nuisance. Commercial vehicles below two tonnes are no less dangerous when reversing than those above two tonnes. And not only are there many more of them, they are generally reversed in more crowded areas and are usually in the hands of less experienced drivers. What price a life? Noise over safety. Shouldn't government turn a deaf ear and give the safety of life priority over a few decibels? Who could argue that to reverse a commercial vehicle which is not equipped with any reverse-in-safety system is to comply with the general provision on the act that says mobile machinery should be operated safely? A driver's mate is no answer. Nowadays they are rarely available and more rarely trained. The days when vehicles had a driver plus a crew member are long gone. The Iwo-tonne regulation is wholly at odds with the act. The position is clear—an act of parliament overrides any regulation—parliament is sovereign. The act takes priority over the two-tonne regulation. Safety is paramount. My last conversation with the Department of Trade and Industry revealed that the twotonne limit is coming up for review. But it has been "coming up for review" time and again over the past two years. Apparently it is now likely to be reviewed next spring along with a review of noise and emissions in general. No doubt change will be further postponed, which seems normal with this Government.
The time for feet-dragging is over. The conflict with the act confuses everybody. The answer is to remove the restriction and to leave fitting to the discretion of the operator. Many local authorities and bluechip companies fit backalarms to vehicles which are under two tonnes gross, such as car-derived vans. Despite being against the regulations there has never been a prosecution. They prefer to be seen to comply with the act and to operate their vehicles safely. My message for the industry and operators is: "Follow the Health and Safety at Work Act to the letter and operate your vehicles safely. Fit an appropriate reversein-safety system now, before one of your vehicles has a reversing accident for which both you and the driver could be found culpable in negligence. I am pressing for the establishment of a standard for reversing alarms in the UK along the lines of the American SAE J994 standard. This was first established in 1967 and has been updated in 1985 and again in 1993. Britain is already 27 years behind the Americans in this vital area—that's a long time to be so apathetic over an area of safety. /