Unanswered questions from the M25 crash

Submitted by cathy n on 12 January, 2007 - 2:05

By Jack Haslam

Two people were killed and up to 60 injured when a National Express coach crashed on a slip road linking the M4 and M25 last Wednesday night (January 3).

Our sympathies go out to the families and friends of the dead and injured.

There are however important health and safety issues that are raised by the crash that need answering. Most of the press speculation has centred on the issue of the stability of double-decker coaches and the question of seat belts, but there are other issues that those who control the passenger transport industry don’t want aired.

The focus on these issues diverts attention away from what is the basic cause of most accidents in road transport – driver fatigue.

Though it would be wrong to guess the outcome of the criminal proceedings suppose the court decides this accident was indeed caused by driver error, if so some very serious questions need to be asked:

What was the work schedule? Was the driver trying to make up lost time after he left London half an hour late?

• The driver comes from the central belt in Scotland. Presumably he had driven down the night before. What rest was he given during the day? What arrangements had his employer national coaches made to ensure that he could get proper uninterrupted sleep? Was he booked into digs?

What assumed Motorway speed was the timetable for the all night London to Aberdeen coach journey based on? If it was right on the 60mph barrier as is normal with overnight routes, then how can drivers running late possibly catch up and get back on schedule without driving at dangerous speeds?

It is questions like this that need answers.

Road transport including passenger transport and haulage is the most dangerous industry in Britain. The main cause of deaths and serious injuries is the unsafe system of work adopted by the employers based on long hours.

The British government has done much to gut the implementation of the European legislation on hours and to ensure that it is policed with ‘a light touch’. For instance in employing the concept of ‘periods of availability’ in the legislation it has allowed the employers to define as ‘non working time’ what should be seen as working time.

It is time for a renewed fight on the issue of drivers’ hours and a change to the enforcement regime.

The haulage industry for instance is riddled with the practice of falsifying tachographs, drivers who object to the illegal long hours get disciplined, threatened with having their licence taken away.

To give a flavour of the bus and coach industry and show just how serious the employers are about safety it is worth reporting that National Express have floated the idea that in future compulsory safety training should be done in drivers own time! Meanwhile, while pleading poverty that they are not able to pay drivers to train, they’ve spent £4.5 million on painting new logos on coaches and an estimated £1.5 million on a re-branding exercise which has seen all National Express workers receive a flyer telling them: ‘Repositioning our brand? Why are we doing this? National Express is an internationally famous brand but lacks distinctive emotional values and has no defined personality. We need brand essence and a clear focus … that is visible in what we stand for’. You couldn’t make it up.

It is a serious indictment of the TUC that it has not done more to scandalise the government for its role as a puppet of the hauliers and coach and bus companies. The whole labour movement should be rallying round the campaign led by the TGWU for stricter laws on drivers’ hours, higher pay and proper safety enforcement on our roads and motorways.

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