Dr Brian Iddon MP: Campaigning for Road Safety Action in Parliament

Bolton South East MP, Dr Brian Iddon has this week been campaigning on the issue of road safety. He has tabled an Early Day Motion calling on the Government to tackle the disproportionate number of deaths on the roads involving Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs).

Dr Iddon said,

“HGVs are involved in 13 percent of all fatal accidents on our roads yet they only account for 5.7 percent of road traffic. A lot of this can be attributed to the visibility of HGVs. I would urge the Government to make it mandatory for all new HGVs to be fitted with retro-reflective markings as soon as possible.”

“Fitting retro-reflective markings to HGVs is something that can be done relatively cheaply and a recent Government consultation revealed support for its implementation. However I am concerned that only fitting new HGVs will not go far enough to tackle the problem and would like to encourage the industry to move faster and implement these markings quickly and where possible on older vehicles”

Dr Iddon has also supported an Early Day Motion which called on the Government to officially recognise World Remembrance Day for victims of road traffic accidents in November. The campaign for a Day of Remembrance has been run by UK charity RoadPeace, in 2005 the Day of Remembrance was recognised by the United Nations.

1. Dr Brian Iddon MP tabled Early Day Motion 1773; the full text can be viewed here: http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=36073&SESSION=891

2. Dr Iddon also supported Early Day Motion 1769; the full text can be viewed here: http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=36069&SESSION=891