"If I'd be moi wearing a seat belt I'd be
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(11 ad by now" Many truckers dislike clunk-clicking their seat belts, believing that they reduce the chance of escaping from the cab in an accident. Multi-drop drivers say they are also inconvenient—and some drivers do not even know that if seat belts are fitted they must be worn.
These views were made clear in CM's survey into the wearing of seat belts in trucks, carried out recently at a busy truckstop in the south of England. Our seatbelt survey was insired by a recent feature (CM11-17 Feb), in which recovery truck driver Chris Todd told how he might have escaped serious injury if he had been wearing a belt. In fact not one of the drivers we interviewed was driving a truck fitted with belts.
Todd was thrown through the windscreen in an accident, breaking his legs, ankles, thigh, ribs, pelvis and shoulder. He is now struggling to walk again. Although his truck was written off, the driver's side of the cab was left relatively intact: hence Todd's conviction that a belt would have saved him.
But that faith in seat belts puts Todd in a minority, judging by the drivers we spoke to. A decisive 68% opposed the wearing of belts; 31% were in favour and 1% were unsure.
Drivers opposing the wearing of belts suffer a deep-rooted fear that they could be trapped in their cabs in an accident.
"It should be left to the individual," said James Ritchie, driving for Swithak Transport. "There are instances where it is better if the driver can escape."
The matter of free choice was echoed by another driver who declined to give his name, but admitted that he ignores the law and never wears a belt in his car either. He too is worried that a belt restricts escape and is fatalistic about his chances in an accident involving another truck: "If you are hit by a 38-tonner, you ain't gonna stop anyway."
Edward McEvoy was having a break from shipping over a load of fresh meat from Southern Ireland for his employer, McCulla (Ireland). He believes seat belts serve some purpose in a car but not a lorry: "With the weight of the load behind, you need to be free in a cab. A lorry won't stop the way a car does."
PJK European Transport driver Michael Holmes was on his way empty from Spalding to his firm's Portsmouth base: "I've been in two accidents. If I'd been wearing a seat belt I'd be dead by now," he said, adding. "Belts are too restrictive in a lorry."
Holmes reckons the height of a lorry cab from the road makes the wearing of belts pointless. Then again, he does not agree that drivers should have to wear them them in cars either.
"Yes, they should be worn because it's safer," said Mark Grant. "In a lorry you have so much glass to go through."
Grant drives a 1987 Volvo for South Wales haulier John Raymond International. He would be pleased if his employer fitted belts to all vehicles, but understands the expense involved.
New Volvos have belts fitted as standard, as do Iveco Fords and MANs. Leyland Daf, Scania, Mercedes-Benz and ERF offer them as optional extras at a cost of between £180 and £200.
"How many times does a lorry driver go through the windscreen?" asked Miclos Toth, sceptically. He was on his way down from Durham to Basingstoke on a general haulage run for Wrights Transport.
"Definitely not," said car transporter driver Alan Higham, when asked if he would wear a belt. On his way to Germany for his employer Tip Toe, Higham reckons he had enough of wearing seat belts when driving in the army. "It is too restricting," he said.
Higham drives a Mercedes 814 and is convinced he would have "more chance" in an accident without a belt.
Owner-driver Mick Sharpe said he would be quite happy to obey the law if belt-wearing was compulsory and is particularly keen that passengers should wear belts because there is nothing to stop them going through the • window. "Years ago I drove a Scania with a belt fitted and it did hold you in the seat when you were going round bends," he recalled.
Fellow owner-driver Stephen Mackin, returning to Ireland with car parts from Germany, wears a belt in his car but not in his lorry. "You are not in so much danger in a truck," he said.
More evidence came from Jim Pearce, driving an Iveco Ford for David Thomas of Swansea. His views have been formed the hard way in his 33 years of lorry driving. "I've had two crashes in a lorry and I'd be dead if I had been wearing a belt. I've seen men lose their legs because of belts."
Pearce believes safety is an issue which should be addressed by fitting steel roll bars on cab roofs to protect drivers if the truck turns over.
DOUBTFUL Ronald Wales, on container work for Matthew Cornish of Felixstowe, would use a belt if it could be proved that belts save lives. But he told us: "As far as I'm concerned belts are a problem because it won't stop there—it will be crash helmets in cabs next." Bob Grundy, shifting steel for Sheffield haulier Ernest Thorpe, said: "Belts should be fitted. I know of a couple of lads who could have been saved if they had been wearing belts. You have got all that glass in front of you."
"You must be joking," said David Johnson, about to resume his journey distributing food for Onward Transport of West Yorkshire. "Not in multi-drop work." Johnson was in a cab that turned over and fears that airsuspension seats, which ride upwards, combined with a seat belt would have been disastrous: "I would have been left hanging, but without a belt I found it easy to get out."
Owner-driver Phil Prior-Egerton has no objections to belts; he said his experience working in accident recovery convinced him of their life-saving value: "In one accident a vehicle went in the river," he recalled. "The driver died because he was not wearing a belt and knocked himself out. In a similar accident the driver survived because he was wearing a belt and remained conscious long enough to escape."
Although not keen on wearing a belt, Martin Lingley, a contract driver for Ferrymasters, reckons he would wear one if the law made them obligatory: "You would get used to them,"he said.
Perhaps that is the key to the situation. Many of the objections raised by truck drivers will be familar to those who remember the debate about the introduction of compulsory seat beltwearing in cars. Then much was made of the "right of the individual to choose" and car drivers' fear of being trapped.
COMPULSORY Present regulations governing seat belts in trucks are not strongly committed to the fact that seat belts in trucks are automatically a safety improvement, especially when coupled with compulsory use. Some experts say a tougher stand needs to be taken by the Department of Transport, or that UK regulations must be brought in line with the rest of Europe.
Failing to do so will leave the vehicle manufacturers to choose whether to fit them as standard. If they do not employers are unlikely to pay the extra cost of having belts fitted when most of their drivers do not like them.
D by Patric Cunnane