Abstract
Safety-consciousness has never been so evident in the road-transport industry as it is now. The Ministry of Transport deserves much credit for this awareness but is now in danger of actually inhibiting progress through its enthusiasm to make regulations on detail engineering features and by being tardy in keeping regulations in line with latest scientific knowledge.
Commercial vehicles present their own special safety problems as a result of the very varied operational environment in which they work. Loadings and weight distributions change markedly from journey to journey. Regulations impose tight restrictions. Noise, limited rearward vision, and harsh suspension produce driver-fatigue problems. Increase in operating speeds is making fresh assessments of handling, aerodynamics and braking quite urgent. Much remains to be done even though big advances have already been made and British technology in commercial-vehicle design now leads the world in many respects.
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