Safety risk LHV: new dimension in road traffic

Berlin. Resistance to the Federal Transport Ministry's trials of longer and heavier vehicles (LHV) is growing. On Tuesday in Berlin, the German Police Union (DPolG), the ACE Autoclub Europa and the German Pro-Rail Alliance warned against unleashing a new dimension in road traffic on other road users. "Traffic safety must have priority over the profit ambitions of individual transport companies," said Rainer Wendt, federal chairman of the DPolG. Police and car drivers will find it hard to cope with the extra length of LHVs, and an increase in the number of traffic accidents is inevitable. The chairman of the ACE Wolfgang Rose also criticised the LHV trials, due to begin in 2011 and take place in the federal states willing to host them. "A heavy goods vehicle is already involved in one in every five fatal accidents. Car drivers are afraid of LHVs on motorways." The Pro-Rail Alliance believes that LHVs will lead to an increase in goods vehicles on the roads. "The idea that longer vehicles will reduce the burden on the motorways is a transport policy myth," said Dirk Flege, managing director of the Pro-Rail Alliance. "All reliable studies demonstrate the very opposite."

The German police union (DPolG) is worried that the introduction of LHVs will bring a whole new dimension in road traffic that other road users will find hard to cope with. "The crucial problem is that road users encountering LHVs will be left to decide for themselves how best to deal with the situation. There will be no special identification, no safeguards and no police accompaniment." Suitable locations for making checks are lacking, as are technical possibilities for measuring vehicle dimensions or checking weight using licensed weigh bridges. "The lack of personnel means that we are already overstretched and will not be able to guarantee the permanent supervision of LHVs or the routes that have been agreed for the tests," said Wendt. Another problem seen by the DPolG's is the special driver training for that is required for operating such exceptional vehicles. "The necessary qualifications have not been sufficiently defined. We are worried that economic pressure will lead transport companies to neglect driving training at the expense of safety," added Wendt.

The ACE pointed out that LHVs will make road traffic even more dangerous. "I do not need field trials to show find that out. Common sense tells can tell me that," said ACE chairman Rose. Overtaking a longer truck will require a few additional seconds. These can make all the difference between life and death. Rose dismissed the argument put forward by LHV supporters that the longer vehicles will only be deployed on motorways. LHVs will have to travel considerable distances to even reach the motorway, even under laboratory conditions, "In any case, once mega trucks have been licensed for the roads then all the promises will be forgotten."

The Pro-Rail Alliance was critical of the field trials, calling them transport policy nonsense. "Instead of shifting freight transport onto the railways, making the roads safer for car drivers, the ministry is striving for the very opposite," said the railway alliance's managing director. Allowing LHVs will lead to transport being shifted from the railways and inland waterways onto the roads. Lower transport costs will encourage companies to move storage capacity onto the roads. "Both these factors will have the effect of generating more road freight transport, and both these factors are exactly what the road freight lobby wants," said Flege. "What gets left behind is road safety."

In October 2010, a summit of state transport ministers rejected federal government plans for nationwide LHV trials, which were due to begin in 2011. Since then, the federal government has been pushing a scaled-down version. By the spring of 2011, mega trucks could already be rolling along roads in the states of Hesse, Saxony, Thuringia, Lower Saxony, Schleswig Holstein, Bavaria and Baden Württemberg. In a letter to the Pro-Rail Alliance, the Federal Ministry for Transport stated that the trials were due to last for five years.