Commercial Vehicles (Speed Limits) (Hansard, 8 February 1984)

§ Mrs. Chalker

My right hon. Friend has today laid regulations amending the speed limits which apply specifically to goods vehicles, buses, and cars pulling trailers. These, if approved by Parliament, will come into effect in about two months' time. I am proceeding with other measures simultaneously to improve the safety of lorries and coaches and to reduce environmental nuisance from them.

Speed Limits. The main change is the setting of new limits for commercial vehicles using dual carriageways midway between existing limits for motorways and those 614W for all other roads. In the light of comments on caravan safety I have decided to keep the speed limit for cars towing trailers at 50 mph for all roads, but without the present weight ratio requirements. I have also decided that small vans built as versions of private cars should be subject in future to the same speed limits as apply to private cars.

Coaches will in future be subject to limits of 70 mph on motorways (as at present), 60 mph on dual carriageways (new limit) and 50 mph on other roads (as at present). I am satisfied that these are safe limits in normal conditions, but that action is needed to increase compliance with them. I have now agreed with the Bus and Coach Council that it will introduce a code of conduct by Easter. This will, amongst other things, extend the fitting of tachographs and monitoring of tachograph discs to all coaches using motorways and dual carriageway roads. We shall be watching the effect of this code through the summer months.

Lorries will in future be subject to limits of 60 mph on motorways (as at present) 50 mph on dual carriageways (new limit) and 40 mph on other roads (as at present). Lorries on fast roads in wet weather throw up considerable quantities of spray which is a danger and a nuisance to other road users. I am grateful to the British Standards Institution and to the organisations that have co-operated with it in preparing a new technical standard to cover the fitting of more effective mud guards and absorbent material to contain spray from heavy vehicles. The Department will shortly be circulating draft regulations to apply this standard to all new lorries, and to existing heavy trailers. These provisions will come into effect during 1985 and will reinforce the measures recently taken to improve the safety of lorries by requiring the fitting of sideguards and rear underrun bars. In the longer term there will be further improvements, including a substantial reduction in noise. On this the European Commission has now made proposals, which we are strongly supporting, to reduce by 4dB the permitted level from new vehicles by the end of this decade.

These changes carry forward my general policy of removing unnecessary restrictions on road transport, so as to keep down costs to industry and to the consumer, wherever this can be done without prejudice to road safety, and at the same time reducing risks and environmental nuisance to motorists and others who share our roads with these large vehicles.