BIRD I S EYE VIEW
Page 68
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BY THE HAWK
• So dedicated is Cecil Parkinson to his vocation as our transport champion, that he has made the ultimate sacrifice by travelling on a tube train. Scorning his personal safety, Parky boarded a rush-hour underground train on a "see the misery" mission and, I'm sure, brought hope to the heart of many a crushed, breathless commuter with his promise that "help is on the way" for London's commuters.
I understand that London Underground is shortly to market St Cecil medallions to mark this epoch-making expedition.
• A bread delivery man's world all but crumbled about him after he was run over by his own seven-tonne van. Andrew Moffatt went under the wheels of the van, which drove over him and came to rest on his arm, after his mate slipped from the vehicle just after it started. Fortunately Moffatt escaped with cracked ribs and bruising.
He praised his colleague who "used his loaf and drove the van clear" which meant reversing the vehicle off Moffatt's arm. Ouch.
• Yorkshire firm Jiffy Trucks is donating a vehicle to a Romanian Baptist minister, enabling him to take aid from urban areas to remote villages. Driver Malcom Grainge will be one of a team of three drivers who will take out the four
• A stormy correspondence has enlivened the letters page of the Yorkshire Post of late as readers square off over a touchy subject: should truck drivers block the outer lane of
wheel drive Bedford Midi van, with a truck carrying 22 tonnes of supplies. Grainge is appealing for supplies of all kinds to fill the truck: he can be contacted on (0274) 531999.
Pinxton, Notts CV dealer Eric Bacon has just returned from Romania after delivering medical supplies.
He plans to return with clothes and food, and also needs contributions. Contact him on (0773) 862772.
• You may have spotted a story, in the Daily Telegraph last week, concerning Guinness tankers in Ireland. It was reported that the company had changed the hi-tech voice recordings, which warn people to keep clear as a tanker reverses, from a Home Counties accent to an Irish brogue, because locals were ignoring the 'English' instructions.
The Irish Times lost no time in rubbishing the piece: Guinness spokesman Pat Barry called it an "utter fabrication".
The tankers concerned, it seems, use a simple electronic bleeper when reversing, though what accent it bleeps in is not immediately clear.
• Ever eager to apprehend a villain, three police cars in hot pursuit of a jewellery thief managed to crash into each other on a Berkshire roundabout, giving a new interpretation to the Cockney rhyming slang for jewellery — "tom foolery".
dual carriageways at roadworks to stop motorists jumping the queue?
As a law-abiding sort of chap, I applaud the action of truck drivers who keep the speed merchants in their place, but one Yorkshire Post reader complains: "It is not up to lorry drivers to marshal traffic." Others do not object to the blocking tactic as such, except when a truck driver obstructs the traffic several kilometres from the cause of a delay.
Should truck drivers blockout queue jumpers, or is the practice harming the already tarnished image of the HGV drivers? No, don't write to me about it: drop a line to the Yorkshire Post.
1 Don't allow waste collection in the corporation wagons (6) 4 Destination of the horse-box heading for the North Yorkshire races? (6) 9 Complex motorway interchange systems; easy for pilots (5) 10 & 17 Down: Irish Sea location for one firm's exclusive production of heavy vehicles (4,2,3)
12 Highway one for sensible driving on the roods (4)
15 East Anglian ferry town ends the A47 (5,8) 16 Sounds like the way to go in the soil (4) 19 Sounds like a performer blocking window draught (4) 23 Wheel connections (5) 24 Mischievous lad from The Beano with the powerful HGV (6) 25 Three for a full stomach or 4 for the race (6) 1 Vehicles transporting frozen foodstuffs (13) 2 & 25 Across: End of the training session or on the cheese and biscuits (5,6) 3 Condiment for 25 or useful material to aid driving in icy weather (4)
5 Clean the road dirt off the wagon the quickest way (4) 6 In-cab entertainment or important information (5)
7 Minister who did not endear himself to ambulance drivers last year (7,6) 8 See 18 Down 11 Record kept by the
tachograph (5) 1 2 What the engine does once it
is switched off (5)
13 Major international electronic goods company with large fleet (3) 14 HGV manufacturer in the middle of Chesterfield (1,1,1) 17 See 10 Across 1 8 & 8 Down: What the steering wheel is on when it will not turn any more (4,4)
20 Residential town off the A3 near Surbiton (Cliff Richard lives there!) (5) 21 Literal type of commercial cab especially at station (4) 22 Uncertain solo for destination in Norway (4)