Transport secretary unhappy at 60-tonne superlorries

Last updated 12:33, Saturday, 03 May 2008

TRANSPORT Secretary Ruth Kelly has condemned 60-tonne superlorries, expressing concerns about road safety, congestion and the environment.

She told the Commons: “I would need a huge amount of persuasion to allow so-called superlorries to have a place on British roads.”

The Department for Transport has announced an additional £24 million over three years to fund a 50 per cent increase in the number of checks on foreign lorries.

Half the foreign lorries checked on British roads in 2006 had serious safety defects which could have resulted in crashes, according to the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (Vosa).

Eastern European lorries were the worst offenders, with prohibition notices placed on 62 per cent from the Czech Republic, 61 per cent from Romania, 55 per cent from Latvia, 52 per cent from Bulgaria and 49 per cent from Poland.

Foreign lorry drivers were more than twice as likely as British drivers to have breached rules on the maximum time spent behind the wheel without a break. More than 37 per cent of drivers of lorries registered in Greece had exceeded that limit, compared with nine per cent of British drivers.