18 November (Part 2) - London diverges from the EU
Last Tuesday the TfL representative
introduced the subject of the Direct Vision Standard
to the Transport Committee, a scheme which I have been hearing about
once in a while and in its various incarnations for the past ten years.
In
2013 London cyclist deaths hit five in only nine days; they had been no better the
previous year, but ‘only nine days’ was headline material. Heavy Goods Vehicles
were the culprits, usually a case of turning left as a cyclist undertook them. Mayor
Johnson was spurred into action calling for a thorough investigation.
At the same time, he was criticised for suggesting that cyclists should exercise
more care but he was right. Why do you think so few HGV drivers are prosecuted?
Although I have picked up a few interesting snippets of information about the
work on saving cyclists from their own follies I assumed much of it was
confidential and could not be featured here, but all that is changing and what
follows may be found on the web.
The initial recommendations to Boris were not very different to what is coming in shortly but in 2014 they
were expensive and maybe before their time. All we got was a new generation of lorries with much
larger and lower windows and additional mirrors which assumed that drivers could
be watching all nine of them at once.
Unsurprisingly this was not the answer to London’s problem, nor did it solve the
same problem which was being seen across the European Union. In Brussels the
wheels turn slowly but they can be thorough. Their project slowly moved towards Euro Ncap for HGVs
including all the electronic gadgetry to be found in modern cars.
Someone who will remain nameless was a frequent visitor to all the European HGV
manufacturers to advise on how they could build in the new technology to meet EU
requirements. Some were able to make minor modifications to existing production but the majority preferred to
wait for the introduction of their next model.
Meanwhile TfL ploughed a separate
furrow with an incompatible system overlooking the fact
that Daimler, Dennis, ERF, Ford, Iveco, MAN, Mercedes-Benz, Scania, Volvo and
the rest of them are not specially interested in manufacturing to meet the whims
of a tin-pot Mayor. The result was no vehicles met the TfL specification which
at one time looked like starving London because of an absence of compliant trucks.
A few enterprising third party companies produced bolt on kits of parts to modify old
but not too old lorries and some kits were better than others. Who was going to certify that
the existing lorry fleets had been modified correctly? No one was available and hauliers stood to be
fined £550 a day if they were to keep the supermarkets stocked. Some ingenuity was
needed: enter haulier self-certification!
If you need to self-certify your vehicle star rating If you are applying for a
single vehicle that we do not hold details for, and you know the vehicle has a
star rating of zero, you can still apply for an HGV safety permit. This process
is now available for vehicles rated one and two stars under the Progressive Safe
System. To self-certify the vehicle as zero, one or two stars rated, you must
upload a written statement as part of your application.
Meanwhile how are Euro Ncap getting along with their scheme and what is the difference?
Well the main difference is that it will not be retrospective and thereby avoids the home
made bodgery on which the London scheme depends.
The EU identified many reasons for cycling deaths and aims to counter all of them. TfL’s Direct Vision Standard
only tackles two so it is entirely possible that London could attract
the older modified and less safe vehicles while the new generation of Ncap safe
lorries are deployed elsewhere in the country.
Euro Ncap has already teased their new standard to the pubic and my information is that the
final all-singing all-dancing one designed to make Khan’s ideas look like
“something from the the dark ages” will be launched in just a day or two’s time.
Will the Direct Vision Standard wither and die because manufacturers are not
prepared to take it into account? And how much money will the Mayor have wasted
by not waiting for the Euro standard?