The Liberal Democrats have called for more freight to be shifted from road to rail in an effort to cut accidents on motorways. Norman Baker, party transport spokesman, says the road network is not capable of dealing with the volume of freight it currently carries. The party has released a set of figures, based on parliamentary answers to Baker:
Nearly 40% of personal injury accidents over five years on the M20 involved collisions with trucks, along with 35% of the accidents on the M6, M25
and A14. In 2006, 356 people were injured in accidents with trucks on the M1 and 397 on the M25.
However, Geoff Dossetter, external affairs director at the Freight Transport Association, says Department for Transport figures show that, on a mile-for mile basis, trucks are involved in about 40% fewer accidents than cars.
He adds: "Of course, the M20 carries a great many trucks on their way to Cheriton or Dover and, by definition, many of them are foreign. And, again on a mile-for-mile basis, foreign lorries are about three times as likely to be involved in an accident than the domestic fleet. The comments are unfortunate given that the industry has a good overall safety record."
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