Boltar wrote:
On Oct 23, 12:40 am, wrote:
The problems are lack of mirror coverage of their near sides made worse by
high driving positions and lack of any or adequate under-run protection.

The high driving positions are due to the large engine that has to be
accomodated at the front. You can't put the cab in front of it because
of length restrictions , or rather you could, but then the trailer
would have to be shorter reducing the max load. As for under run
protection - remember that these things have to go over hump backed
bridges and other things where if they had fairings going down to the
ground there would be a high risk of grounding.

Tippers, Skip Lorries and Cement Lorries are not, I believe, required to
have side protection. This is because they frequently work 'off-road'.
With other vehicles the side guards do offer some protection.
In addition the 'exempt' vehicle are often 'owner drivers' on piece
work. The temptation to cut corners is too great for safety. A left
turning cement truck killed a cyclist in Cambridge. There was disputed
evidence about whether he was even indicating. A cyclist hit by an
overtaking bus recieved only relatively minor injuries. If it had been a
skip lorry they would have been lucky to survive.
I think ALL HGVs should have a fully functioning 'black box' rather than
just a tacho.

Jim Chisholm