New clause 14 - SPEED LIMITS FOR VEHICLES OF CERTAIN CLASSES
Road Safety Bill
4:31 pm
Mr Christopher Chope (Shadow Minister, Environment and Transport; Christchurch, Conservative)
We do not have much time to go into the details, but I would pray in aid what the Minister himself said in his letter to Commercial Motor on 13 January 2005:
''Your article suggests that some car drivers may become irritated when they are following a slow moving HGV and I have no reason to believe that this is not the case.''
In fairness, he goes on to say that, human nature being what it is, he is not convinced that even if the speed limit were increased the same small minority of car drivers might not still want to overtake. That is where I part company with him. There is a lot of difference between driving behind an HGV mile on mile when it is travelling at only 40 mph and doing so when it is travelling at 50 mph. Also, overtaking a vehicle that is travelling at 50 mph is a significantly more dangerous manoeuvre than overtaking a vehicle that is travelling at 40 mph—for obvious reasons.