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TfL shuts down police lorry safety unit
Felix Allen15.10.09
A specialist police unit dealing with HGV accidents is to be disbanded.
Transport for London has withdrawn the £1 million-a-year funding that pays for the Met's Commercial Vehicle Education Unit, which helps prevent cyclists being crushed by lorries.
Mayor Boris Johnson, who is chairman of TfL, was told shutting down the unit was "misguided".
The CVEU will close in March.
Jenny Jones, a Green party London Assembly member, said: "The Mayor is risking Londoners' lives in order to save a small amount of money."
Kulveer Ranger, the Mayor's transport adviser, said: "Although funding for the police Commercial Vehicle Education Unit ends next March, many of their educational and administrative activities will be taken forward by a similar scheme led by the industry and Transport for London."
Reader views (4)
I thought the congestion charge was supposed to plug this gap in TfL's spending so that the prices for public transport wouldn't have to go up and encourage the public to use public transport more often.
This is just pure greed, we HAVE to get to work somehow, if walking or cycling is not an option we are left with a gaping hole in our wages. Boris can afford a house within cycling distance of his work place. I'm afraid most of us can not.
- Jade, London
Given his record I dont think we should place much store in what Kulver Ranger thinks!!!
Who knows next time a lorry will be more successful when BOJO is cycling!!
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex
It's hardly worth the waste of money when "travellers" and ne'er-do-wells are seemingly allowed to flout the rules anyway.
- Thomas, London
England's most famous cyclist, making the roads more lethally dangerous for cyclists!
City of London [Police] spot checks on HGVs [were] carried out on 30 September 2008 as part of the Europe-wide Operation Mermaid2, which is intended to step up levels of enforcement of road safety laws in
relation to lorries.
On this one day, 12 lorries were stopped randomly by City Police. Five of those lorries were involved in the construction work for the 2012 Olympics. All of the twelve lorries were breaking the law in at least
one way
Repeat:
a 100 per cent criminality rate among small random sample of HGVs on the streets of central London. The offences range included overweight loads (2 cases), mechanical breaches (5 cases), driver hours breaches (5 cases), mobile phone use while driving (2 cases),
driving without insurance (2 cases) and no operator license (1 case).
Boris has already scrapped safety checks for black cabs.
More people will die before he realises his mistake.
- Stan The Van, London
