Brendan Ryan (Labour)

Yesterday a truck driver was given a suspended sentence for an accident in which people were killed. Yesterday, too, a woman was killed tragically. I do not wish to make any judgments about guilt in respect of a truck driver. The NRA has shown that 90% of trucks, when surveyed, were in breach of the speed limits. I want somebody from the Government to outline what it is doing about ensuring that heavy goods vehicles travel at the legal speed limit which is a maximum anywhere of 50 mph. Heavy goods vehicles account for only 3% of registered vehicles yet they are involved in 10% of fatal accidents. It is a scandal of unmitigated proportions that we are allowing that level of institutionalised dangerous driving in the country. Before more people are killed by trucks I want an assurance that the law will be rigorously and vigorously enforced.