As 60ft lorries hit UK roads, campaigners warn MPs have been misled oversafety concerns.

26th January 2012
 

As the Government’s ten year trial of 60ft (18.55m) lorries starts today (January 26th), campaigners are warning that Parliament has been misled about the dangers posed by longer lorries.

Philippa Edmunds, Freight on Rail Manager, said: “The Government justified allowing longer HGVs on our roads by misleading MPs and distorting the safety analysis. The Department for Transport research had significant flaws because it did not look at how longer lorries would behave in urban areas and on tight right and left hand turns. By including these very common scenarios and using the Government’s own figures, longer lorries could cause an additional six deaths a year and increase overall accident rates between four and eight per cent.”

She added that “ Making lorries bigger does not make sense when the Government’s own statistics show that almost half of existing sized lorries are driving around partially full and over a quarter of lorries are driving around completely empty 4.”
 

Notes to editors

First Stobart 60ft lorry on roads today

1. The Department for Transport’s report, Consultation on the possibility of allowing an increase in the length of articulated lorries, showed that tail swing will increase by 350 per cent (two metres). The research did not assess the impact on tight junctions where the out-swing of the rear of the trailer will double to over two metres and this will occur in the driver’s increased blind spot. Such trucks will have to enter the ‘wrong’ lanes or mount the footway or traffic islands to make these everyday manoeuvres. This will be particularly dangerous for all other road users who may get side swiped as it will not be obvious to them how the back of the lorry will swing out into another lane.

2. During Parliamentary Questions on September 15 2011, Mike Penning, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport, implied that the longer lorries will have tighter turning circles than those of existing lorries, which is not true and not what the actual DfT research states.

Freight on Rail wrote to Mr Penning asking either for evidence to support these statements, or for a correction to the Hansard record if they could not be substantiated. In reply, Mr Penning acknowledged that: “The comment that I made, about the benefits of steering axles, reflected my own experience when I had the opportunity to see a prototype of a longer semi-trailer a little while ago.”

Mr Penning also stated that “the risk is not there for cyclists” during the same parliamentary question despite the fact that he had to subsequently admit that its research did not consider the safety implications for different types of road users although it stated that the tail swing would increase in a parliamentary answer to Maria Eagle, Shadow Secretary of State for Transport.

3. In June 2011 Review of Government proposals for longer semi trailers, an independent report from transport consultants MTRU commissioned by Freight on Rail, concluded longer lorries could lead to six extra deaths per year and result in 4 to 8 per cent more collisions.

4 Impact Assessment of Longer Semi-Trailers, DfT 20/12/2010 Table 5 shows 47% lorries neither constrained by weight or volume
27% empty running DfT figures CSRGT.

5. Freight on Rail is a partnership between the rail trade unions, the rail freight industry and Campaign for Better Transport. It works to promote the economic, social and environmental benefits of rail freight both nationally and locally.