Seatbelts and heavy goods vehicles: Adjournment Debate, House of Commons, 8 December 2009.

I am very grateful to Mr Speaker for the opportunity to have this debate on what may seem a small and arcane issue to do with the fitting of seatbelts to heavy goods vehicles.  

But sometimes small issues have big consequences.  In this case it is an issue that literally can be a matter of life and death.  I know that road safety concerns about HGVs are usually focussed on their role in accidents and fatalities involving other motorists, cyclists and pedestrians. And there are clearly issues there that need to be addressed.  But my focus today is a different one – it is on the dangers posed to the drivers of HGVs where their lorries have not been fitted with seatbelts.  

I have called this debate because in July 2007 a constituent of mine Peter Williams was killed when the seven tonne lorry he was driving crashed near Wolsingham in County Durham.  Peter was just 23 years old.  According to evidence heard at the inquest into his death, the injuries Peter sustained were mainly above the legs and on his chest, probably indicating that he had been thrown against the steering wheel before being thrown out of the cab as the lorry plunged down a bank and onto a railway line.

The Calor Gas tanker he was driving dated from 1995.  It had not been fitted with seatbelts.  

After Peter died his mum and dad, Jan and Mark Williams came to see me as their local MP.  Understandably they were deeply upset by Peter’s death but what impressed me then – and has continued to do so over the two years I have known them – is their shared determination and calm resolve to see some good come out of their family’s personal tragedy.  At no point have they displayed any rancour or bitterness about what happened to their son.  They are a remarkable family and I want to pay tribute to them today.  Mark and Jan have worked tirelessly over these last few years in campaigning to highlight the need for every HGV on Britain’s roads to be fitted with seatbelts so that no other family has to suffer the loss they have.  

I hope this debate today helps.  I hope it helps the Williams family and their campaign.  I hope it raises awareness about the lack of seatbelt protection in too many lorries.  Above all else I hope it prompts the government and the road haulage industry together to take action to save lives.  

After Mr & Mrs Williams first came to see me I was genuinely shocked to find that Peter Williams’ lorry is not the only one to lack that most basic of safety protections – a seatbelt.  I had assumed, perhaps naively, that every lorry would be fitted with seatbelts.  That is true for all HGVs weighing over 3,500 kilos first used after 1st October 2001.  By law they have to be fitted with seatbelts. The problem is with lorries that were registered before that date.

Answers to questions I tabled to my hon friend’s predecessor, the member for Poplar and Canning Town, in this place confirm the extent of the problem.  My hon friend estimated that there were over 250,000 vehicles which were registered before 2001 and which are still in use. Since these will include many older vehicles they are precisely the ones that are probably most prone to safety problems.  Of course their numbers are falling year on year and although there was no statutory requirement for manufacturers to fit seatbelts in lorries prior to 2001 some  - such as Scania and Volvo - did so voluntarily.  So not every one of those older lorries will be without seatbelts.

But many will.  That is a loophole which I believe it is time to close.  I know from conversations with Ministers and officials in the Department for Transport and from communication with the RHA, that there is no reliable data on just how many lorries there are currently on the road and in daily use which do not have seatbelts fitted in their cabs.  But it is highly likely that the numbers run into many thousands.  DfT figures suggest in 1997 alone there were over 400,000 lorries in use that had been registered prior to that date.

Of course, in the case of these old lorries they may have cabs that are difficult to adapt to enable a seatbelt to be fitted.  But this will not be the case in all.

Indeed when my hon friend the member for Poplar and Canning Town kindly met with the Williams family and myself last year he informed us that more than 150,000 HGVs registered before 2001 have the necessary anchorage points already in place to enable seatbelts to be easily installed.  So the fittings are there – but the seatbelts aren’t.  I cannot see any excuse for that.

In a letter to me of 2nd June last year the Chief Executive of the Road Haulage Association said that “fitment of belts to those vehicles not currently fitted should not cause too much of an engineering problem.”  The Department for Transport estimates the cost of installation to be £110 per vehicle although the RHA says it could be nearer £200 to £300.  I have every sympathy for road hauliers who in the current economic climate are finding it difficult to make ends meet.  But this is not something that will cost the earth.  A few hundred pounds seems an incredibly small price to pay for something that is potentially life-saving.

We know from the experience of the last few decades that seatbelts do save lives.  The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents estimates that in all vehicles over the last 25 years around 50,000 lives will have been saved as a result of people wearing seatbelts.  In 1997 another report indicated that around 130 deaths and serious injuries could be prevented if all truck drivers wore a seatbelt.  A further study conducted for the Department of Transport in 2001 concluded that 3 deaths and 35 serious injuries could be prevented if seatbelts were fitted to HGVs.

Of course even when seatbelts are fitted they are not always worn.  A decade ago it was estimated that only one in ten truck drivers were doing so.  That low level of seatbelt usage remains a problem today and I know that the Minister is concerned to address that problem.  It is very welcome that both the Department of Transport and the organisations representing road hauliers, most notably the RHA, are actively encouraging drivers to wear a seatbelt where there is one fitted.

Sadly Peter Williams did not have that option.  If he had wanted to wear a seatbelt he could not have done so because his lorry was one of those that did not have them installed.  No one, of course, will ever know whether if it had been Peter would still be with us today.  But most sensible people I think would conclude that it is not unreasonable for lorry drivers, regardless of the age of the lorry they are driving, to be afforded basic protection from death or serious injury.

We are all rightly concerned about drivers – whether of cars or lorries – not wearing seatbelts when they are fitted to their vehicles. I am no great fan of what can be called the nanny state approach but when research shows that about one third of car occupants who have received fatal injuries have not been wearing seatbelts I believe that society and the law has a responsibility to act.  Most people I think agree with that proposition.  I suppose my question is a simple one:  shouldn’t our concerns extend from drivers not wearing their seatbelts to vehicles that do not have seatbelts fitted?  They are two sides of the same coin.  They are both road safety issues and they both need to be addressed.

I know from conversations with my hon friend that he is concerned about the current loophole.  Like his predecessor my hon friend has taken an active interest in the Williams campaign and I thank him for that.  In essence they are urging haulage companies to fit seatbelts to all commercial vehicles that are on the roads and that do not currently have them.   Over 10,000 people, many from my Darlington constituency, have already pledged support for their campaign.

They are not alone.  Mr Andrew Tweddle, the Durham and Darlington coroner who presided over the inquest into Peter’s death, has called for the current law to be reviewed.  When I approached the Road Haulage Association I was very pleased to receive its support for a campaign that focuses on the operators of older vehicles that have anchorages fitted but no belts installed.  Similarly when I contacted the Health & Safety Executive they offered to assist in disseminating messages about the fitting of safety belts in lorries.

Such a campaign is overdue.  I hope that my hon friend will today pledge his department’s support for this campaign.  More than that I hope he will actively work with the various organisations representing road hauliers to make that campaign a priority for the New Year.  The aim should be to win the hearts and minds of the firms operating older lorries to fit seatbelts to every single one of them.  

It is far better in my view for the loophole in the current law to be addressed by voluntary action than by legislative change.  For one thing that action – if there is the will to make it happen – can make progress quickly.  Equally, however, if that campaign does not happen or does not succeed in persuading road hauliers to install seatbelts I hope the Minister will keep open the option of amending the law to make such a change mandatory.  As I say I hope that common sense will prevail and that we do not have contemplate moving down the legislative route.  

More than that I hope that common human decency will prevail.  Without seatbelts, older lorries can become potential deathtraps for drivers who are unfortunate enough to be involved in an accident.  We know that from what happened to Peter Williams.  Nothing can bring Peter back.  But more must be done to ensure we learn some lessons from his untimely death.    

My plea to the Minister is a straightforward one: let us not wait for another preventable death to take place before action is taken.  We should be taking action now.  That is what I hope he will pledge to do.