Breakdown Warnings
Page 25
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ONF potential source of fatalities to lorry drivers—indeed, to any road user—arises from the need to change a punctured offside wheel when the driver cannot isolate himself from passing traffic. Probably because the glare of publicity is greatest there, the motorways provide tragic instances of lorry drivers being killed when trying to change wheels on the hard shoulder. It does not happen only on the motorways, however; such fatalities occur on most trunk roads at some time or other.
In the old days, it was recognized practice to steer to the offside kerb in the event of a puncture on that side, so that the driver, or fitter, could change the wheel in safety. On dual carriageways (usually) and motorways (absolutely) this is not possible. True a 10-ft.-wide hard shoulder is provided on motorways, but how does a man work in safety when the vehicle itself may be only about 1 ft. 10 in. narrower than the hard shoulder? Small wonder people are killed in this fashion. Even if he can limp to a layby on a trunk road, much the same situation occurs for the lorry driver—and it is no comfort to reflect that the driver of the vehicle which kills him is usually open to criticism.
The Ministry of Transport should be considering this hazard, at least with regard to new roadbuilding projects.
Meantime, operators can help themselves. As reported last week, the Pointer Group, of Norwich, has supplied all its vehicles with warning signs which can be placed in the road behind a disabled lorry. Their public-spirited purchase should act as a spur to the Ministry in introducing long-awaited regulations to legalize the use of approved warning signs of this nature.