Brendan Ryan (Labour)

Like Senator MacSharry, I have a secretary paid for by the taxpayer. I then write to the companies which own the trucks in question. It would be invidious and improper to identify them but they are major distributors, some of which operate in the retail sector. I receive heartfelt letters from all of them assuring me their trucks are fitted with governors.

However, my secretary recently received a telephone call from a major company which assured him that everyone knew of ways to circumvent governors. If we all know, we can all stop their use. I have discovered since that one can simply remove a fuse from a governor. In my innocence I assumed that, like a meter in a taxi, a governor would have an official seal on it to ensure that once it was put in, it could not be tampered with. If we can do so in regard to meters in thousands of taxis, we can insist on it in respect of governors in articulated trucks.

I got involved in this campaign when the National Roads Authority told me that of all vehicles on the road, 3% are classified as heavy goods vehicles yet they are involved in 10% of fatal accidents. I draw the obvious conclusion that the reason they are involved in that number of accidents is not necessarily exclusively, but largely because they are being driven too fast by drivers who are under considerable pressure, either by contract or employment, to do too much on our limited roads in too short a time. The one measure which could have a dramatic effect would be to enforce the law in respect of heavy goods vehicles.