Living with the lorry

It’s 22 December 2014 and, like all city centres at that time of the year, Glasgow’s George Square is packed with shoppers filling their baskets for the holidays. A corporation bin lorry suddenly appears to go out of control and ploughs into groups of pedestrians killing six and injuring a further ten. It is reported that the lorry driver had undergone some sort of attack and lost consciousness resulting in the vehicle’s deadly path. Later the police announce that no charges are to be made against the driver or the vehicle operator.

Seven weeks later and on 9 February 2015, in the city of Bath, a 32 tonne tipper truck, carrying aggregates, appears to suffer sort of mechanical failure resulting in it running downhill out of control near a primary school causing the deaths of a four year old girl and of three men in a car. This time there are two arrests – the driver for ‘causing death by dangerous driving’ and a representative of the haulage company charged with ‘causing manslaughter by gross negligence’.

This July will see a public inquiry into the Glasgow event and re-opening the adjourned inquest on the Bath tragedy. The information coming out of those procedures will be anxiously awaited by all involved, and by lorry drivers and transport operators throughout the nation.

There are many factors to take into account on the whole issue of lorries in towns.

First of all we have to accept that if we, as citizens, want to enjoy the convenience and benefit of the conduct of a town or city, then we must accept that commercial vehicles have to operate. Whether it is a matter of trucks and vans delivering food to supermarkets, beer to pubs, stocks for shops, or supplies to factories and offices, then we have to recognise that most of them come on the back of a truck. And, as was the case in Glasgow and Bath, we also need to move away rubbish and construct new buildings.

The suggestion that these trucks can be replaced by fleets of smaller vans does not fight – the costs, inconvenience and traffic congestion of moving goods on larger numbers of smaller vehicles is simply not viable. So we need lorries.

Bearing in mind the potential safety problems resulting from large lorries interfacing with smaller vehicles, vulnerable road users and pedestrians, the vehicles themselves, and their drivers, must be, and are, subject to an enormous amount of legislation and regulation designed to keep all parties safe. And the consequences of failing to stick to the regulations can result in the ultimate penalty – the withdrawal of the vehicle operator’s licence and the closure of his business.

Strict regulation and improving enforcement have meant that, in the main, the lorry’s safety record is very good with an involvement level in accidents on a mile for mile basis far fewer when compared with cars.

Conditions on their licence mean operators are obliged to properly maintain their vehicles and to carry out frequent and regular safety checks. Enforcement by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) and the police are now becoming more efficient and targeted at likely offenders – why waste resources stopping operators who always play by the rules. And the Traffic Commissioners, who administer the regulatory process, are vigilant in their application of the system.

Drivers have an absolutely key role to play regarding vehicle safety standards – and the evidence sadly suggests that some of them could be doing better. They are required to carry out a daily walk around check to look at basic safety items including lights, tyres, brakes, steering, mirrors, electrical connections and others – a process designed to take up around 15 minutes at the start of every shift.

But the Freight Transport Association’s Vehicle Inspection Service recently estimated that more than half of the safety faults they find during their independent inspections should have been spotted, and weren’t, by the driver during his daily walk around check. To counter this, and perhaps following recent tragic events, there now appears to be a considerable increase by operators in implementing unannounced gate checks in order to physically inspect the vehicle when leaving the yard, and then feeding back to the driver there and then what has been found. As well as assisting the safety process this can then help to target driver walk around check training.

It is a fact that every type of human enterprise has some bad apples in the barrel. In road transport there must be some sloppy or dishonest operators, careless of their statutory and safety obligations, and feckless drivers unconcerned about their vehicle or their own behaviour. But I believe they are in a tiny minority.

In my experience I have found the vast majority of vehicle operators and drivers to be safe and legally compliant. Let us hope that the results from the July inquiries will inform all of us of what we may be able to do in order to further improve vehicle safety, driver expertise and the whole way in which commercial road transport interfaces with the wider community.

Maybe something good can come out of something so awful.