Mr. Peter Farrelly:

These are not the tractors that are in the crashes. By doing this we are not improving road safety. According to the statistics, contractors' tractors are not the ones in the accidents. It is the older, poorer condition tractors that are in accidents. Bringing in a road test for 40 kph plus tractors does not make sense when statistics show probably 90% of accidents involve the other tractors. The contractors' tractors' involvement is very limited. If insurance companies are asked what tractors are in accidents, they will say it is slower-moving tractors.

Most of these crashes happen when a tractor is coming out of a junction or coming out of a gateway from a field. To improve safety we need to address the causes of these 99 % of accidents. Safety can simply be improved by cutting the hedges so the driver can see. Hedges within 180 m of exits are supposed to be cut. Tractor drivers are limited because they cannot cut them to see out. If the Deputy looks at statistics or goes to insurance companies she will see that coming out of entrances where the driver cannot see down the road is where most tractor accidents take place. The NCT is not going to improve our road safety. Our issue is that we should improve road safety in whatever way we can improve it and that is visibility. It does not matter whether it is a lorry or a car. If a lorry goes down the road and the tractor driver can see round the corners and see the vehicle coming, that is the easiest and most cost-effective way of improving our roads.

These proposals are hitting tractors that are not in the accident system at the moment.