Member News
By Paul Goggins MP - 29th March 2011
Paul Goggins MP calls for a more stringent HGV wheel safety system to be put in place, rather than wait for a catastrophe to happen.
Tyres are heavily regulated. Look at any tyre and you will see an 'E' mark printed on the wall confirming that it is approved and meets set standards. But when it comes to wheels there are no regulations or markings.
As it stands a wheel could be damaged in a serious accident and be back on the road the very next day, fitted to a different vehicle without any inspection or accountability.
The Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) has never been tasked to inspect wheels when checking HGVs. Whilst the loss of a wheel in an accident would be viewed seriously, in other incidents and accidents VOSA will rarely look to see if wheel failure has caused the problem.
Wheel suppliers believe that there has been a rise – approximately 10,000 per annum – of substandard and potentially hazardous second hand HGV wheels entering the UK market. There has also been a rise in the number of commercial vehicle wheels sourced from The Far East and entering the country without any requirement to meet minimum standards of design, safety and maintenance.
These wheels have no history or traceability, yet they can be sold by anybody in the UK with no requirements for technical procedures to assess their history.
A HGV wheel can be damaged in several ways:
o Dents and cracks caused by over-tightening of the wheel nuts
o Dents and cracks caused by collision including by accidents, pot-holes and kerbs
o Rust and wear and tear caused by weather and road surface conditions
o Rust and wear and tear caused by age
o Incorrect tyre fitting
The implications of purchasing a faulty wheel are huge. A forty-five ton lorry travelling at 55mph can cause serious damage if a tyre fails and there are numerous measures to prevent this from occurring. Yet few preventive measures are in place to avoid wheel failure from causing the same damage.
Currently the Department for Transport do not believe that wheel failure is a significant factor in vehicle accidents. But the truth is that because the checks are inadequate no one really knows
In the debate I will put forward two practical suggestions for improving safety. Firstly, I will ask ministers to identify a senior official in the Department for Transport who will be a point of contact for the wheel supply industry so that they can forward any evidence of defective wheels. Second, I will ask for the DfT to hold a year long trial in one area of the country in which VOSA operates an enhanced testing programme – including greater scrutiny of wheel safety.
HGV wheel safety failures may or may not be a major cause of accidents. We can not be certain because the monitoring is currently inadequate. Surely it would be better to put a more stringent safety system in place rather than wait for a catastrophe to happen.
Paul Gogginswas elected Labour MP for Wythenshawe and Sale East in 1997. A former Home Office and Northern Ireland minister, he currently sits on the Intelligence and Security Committee.
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