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@spindrift
There is only one police unit in London qualified to carry out HGV checks.
Boris plans to scrap it.
*Questions going to the Mayor tomorrow include:
*Will the cuts to the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Unit make London's
roads less safe for cyclists? *
HGVs in London have a dreadful safety record. Because the HSE refuse
to get involved in road deaths as opposed to deaths onsite, cyclists
deaths are ignored on London's roads and penalties to killer drivers
are laughable.
The most dangerous vehilces, the ones that pose the greatest danger
and the ones that are involved in a disproportionate number of deaths,
are given even greater leeway to lumber around a medievel road layout
unimpeded.
City of London [Police] spot checks on HGVs [were] carried out on 30
September 2008 as part of the Europe-wide Operation Mermaid2, which is
intended to step up levels of enforcement of road safety laws in
relation to lorries.
On this one day, 12 lorries were stopped randomly by City Police. Five
of those lorries were involved in the construction work for the 2012
Olympics. All of the twelve lorries were breaking the law in at least
one way
Repeat:
a 100 per cent criminality rate among small random sample of
HGVs on the streets of central London. The offences range included
overweight loads (2 cases), mechanical breaches (5 cases), driver
hours breaches (5 cases), mobile phone use while driving (2 cases),
driving without insurance (2 cases) and no operator license (1 case).