Asked by: Mike Weir (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the average cost incurred or earnings lost by road users whose vehicles are incapacitated following sideswipe collisions attributable to heavy goods vehicles.
Answered by Claire Perry
I have no specific estimate of the average cost incurred or earnings lost by road users whose vehicles are incapacitated following sideswipe collisions attributable to heavy goods vehicles.
The Department for Transport’s published accident values for use in project and policy appraisal comprise several costs elements, including the lost output (or earnings) of those injured in road accidents. The values are averages across all reported accidents and are provided by accident severity and road class.
Asked by: Mike Weir (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of trends in the number of incidents in which heavy goods vehicles have sideswiped vehicles which are (a) stationary and (b) in transit at the time of collision over the last five years.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The number of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) involved in accidents that resulted in a personal injury and were reported to the police in the last five years with a) a stationary vehicle and (b) a non-stationary vehicle where the heavy goods vehicle was changing lane to the left or right can be found in the tables below:
a) Number of HGVs involved in reported personal-injury accidents with a stationary vehicle where the HGV was changing lane to the left or right: GB, 2009-2013
| 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
Changing lane to left | 8 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 3 |
Changing lane to right | 3 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
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Total | 11 | 8 | 11 | 7 | 5 |
b) Number of HGVs involved in reported personal-injury accidents with a non-stationary vehicle where the HGV was changing lane to the left or right: GB, 2009-2013
| 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
Changing lane to left | 302 | 332 | 284 | 248 | 252 |
Changing lane to right | 417 | 400 | 348 | 331 | 325 |
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Total | 719 | 732 | 632 | 579 | 577 |
The non-stationary vehicle may have been undertaking a number of different manoeuvres such as reversing, performing a U-turn, slowing/stopping or moving off. The HGV manoeuvre in all the above figures was changing lane to the left or right.
These figures come from police reported accident data. They only include accidents in which at least one person was injured and were reported to the police.
Asked by: Mike Weir (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what interim assessment he has made of the incidence of collisions involving vehicles participating in the Longer HGV Semi-Trailer Trial.
Answered by Claire Perry
The annual report on the longer semi-trailer (LST) trial published in June 2014 included an interim assessment of collisions involving vehicles participating in the trial. This is published on the Government’s website and can be found at the following link:
This report includes analysis of reported road collisions involving LSTs resulting in injury, which shows that the incidence of such collisions is lower than that for the GB Articulated fleet in general. Longer semi-trailer trial vehicles operating between September 2012 and December 2013 were involved in five incidents in which someone was injured, 4 of them slight injuries and one serious injury (broken arm). Of these, one slight and one serious injury occurred on public roads, the remainder in depots or other private areas.
For the general population of heavy goods vehicles, casualty data are only available for incidents that occur on public roads. Comparing these data, longer semi-trailer trial vehicles were involved in injury incidents on public roads at a rate of 48.8 per billion vehicle kilometres. This compares with a rate of 187.4 injury incidents per billion vehicle kilometres for all articulated heavy goods vehicles in Great Britain over the period 2010-2012. The number of casualties in incidents involving all articulated HGVs was an average of over 3,400 per year over this period.
In addition, the report estimated that between 600 thousand and 900 thousand HGV vehicle kilometres have been removed from the road as a result of longer semi-trailer operations between September 2012 and December 2013. This will help to further reduce the risk of incidents occurring.
Asked by: Mike Weir (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when the guidance in respect of (a) lane discipline and (b) related testing requirements for heavy goods vehicles was last revised.
Answered by Claire Perry
Guidance in the book The Official DVSA Guide to Driving Goods Vehicles is revised in response to feedback and research. The last time the advice on lane discipline was revised was in a reprint in June 2011 where two paragraphs were added. There have been no changes since.