§ 37. Mr. John Browneasked the Secretary of State for Transport if, in view of the number of road accidents caused by the jack-knifing of articulated lorries, he will introduce legislation to make the fitment of anti-jack-knifing mechanisms mandatory.
§ Mrs. ChalkerJack-knifing is a form of braking instability which occurs in about 3 per cent. of heavy goods vehicle injury accidents. To overcome it, efforts have been concentrated on setting a braking stability performance standard.
Such a standard is included in the EC braking directives which became mandatory in the United Kingdom for all new vehicles from 1 October 1982. The practical effect is that articulated goods vehicles have to be fitted with anti jack-knifing mechanisms such as load sensing brake valves of wheel anti-lock devices.