Clampdown on foreign lorries

Transport Select Committee MPs wants to give the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) more power over foreign lorries that have high road traffic accident (RTA) rates, the Telegraph reports.

The Association of British Insurers says they are three times more likely to be involved in a collision on British roads than domestic lorries.

• Foreign drivers are more likely to have been at the wheel for longer than the legal maximum of 10 hours a day or 56 hours a week.
• 60% of Czech Republic vehicle stopped in 2007-8 were unroadworthy.
• More than 50% of Polish and Hungarian HGV drivers had unfit vehicles
• 40% of Belgian, German and Italian trucks were unsafe

"These figures are all the more worrying when taking into account that sophisticated targeting techniques which are used to select UK vehicles cannot be used for foreign-registered vehicles,” the MPs said.

VOSA problems

VOSA staff have no legal right to enter ports to carry out safety checks on lorries before they get onto Britain's roads and have been refused entry.

Data protection laws have stopped VOSA inspectors getting information such as a ship's manifest or customs material.

The MPs also called for the creation of an EU-wide data base of safety records which they said would save lives across the continent.