'scapegoats' for gas blasts
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GAS explosions should be blamed on the lack of road maintenance and not on heavy lorries as stated in a Government report, says the haulage industry.
A report issued last week by the Department of Industry blamed heavy vehicles using roads containing gas mains for a series of explosions late last year.
But this week angry reaction to the statement has come from the Road Haulage Association and the Freight Transport Association who both blame cuts in road maintenance expenditure for the blasts.
"The only roads without gas mains are the motorways," said an FTA spokesman.
"This is a red herring aimed at stopping the proposed increases in lorry weights," he said. "Add this to the dry weather last year and there are the reasons for the claim."
And the RHA blamed the failure of an inquiry into the gas explosions to identify any one factor as the reason for the accusation.
The report says the increase in vehicle weights would be a "serious cause for concern" and it says that parking of lorries on verges and down side roads is another cause for concern.
The report maintains that if the axle weights are raised t hen lorries should be confined to special routes and not allowed to use roads containing gas mains. Blame for the explosions is placed on the shoulders of the local authorities who have been cutting down on maintenance for the state of the roads and hence the mains.
The report has been compiled by chemical engineer Dr Phillip King, and he has urged Energy Secretary Tony Benn to enforce existing laws on parking and the movement of vehicles and to tighten up on the regulations. Heavy vehicles were almost certainly responsible for the explosions at Brentford and Bristol in which a total of 38 people were injured, says the report — but there is no definite cause for the other blasts.
Dr King says that "the situation where a former side road becomes a major route due to a new traffic scheme without due consideration to its load-bearing capacity" is one major cause of the blasts.
Increases in the numbers of vehicles, their weights, and the numbers of heavier lorries on the roads are cited as major causes of the disasters.