Warning signs for tall trucks...
Page 8
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
by Steve Banner • All trucks over three metres high will have to be fitted with in-cab height warning signs in a bid to reduce bridge bashing under new rules drawn up by the Department of Transport.
Around a thousand bridges a year are being hit by trucks, says the DOT.
The new rules will come into force on 1 January 1997, subject to ministerial approval this month. Signs will have to be installed by 30 June, but there will be an exemption for operators who can show they have planned their route to avoid fouling bridges. The driver will have to carry some sort of route-planning proof with him, such as a suitably marked road map.
Every new truck fitted with powered equipment such as a lorry loader or tipping bodywork will also have to be fitted with a visual in-cab warning device from 1 January 1998. This will alert the driver if the equipment or body isn't in its normal travelling position.
This requirement will become retrospective from 30 June 1998, and will affect all trucks used after 1 January 1991. Such a device will not have to be fitted if the equipment can be locked securely in place, and some vehicles— including car transporters and fire engines—will be exempt.
The warning signs will have to be in Imperial measurements, and must use letters and numbers at least 40mm high. Drivers of flatbed vehicles carrying loads of varying height will be expected to have measured the overall height of their cargo.
"Bridge bashing is costing Railtrack over £4m a year, and we believe that it is doing an additional £3m to £4m-worth of damage to the vehicles involved," Ian Corfieid of the Department of Transport's Vehicle Standards and Engineering Division told the annual general meeting of the Association of Lorry Loader Manufacturers and Importers in Birmingham.
The regulations are being amended because it is proving difficult to prosecute drivers and operators for bridge bashing offences under existing road transport law, he added.