Foreign lorries are eight times more dangerous than British trucks, it has been revealed. Foreign HGVs only make up 1% of the total in the country but were involved in 163 accidents in which someone either died or suffered serious injuries in on year. This was nearly 8% of the total involving heavy goods vehicles. Meanwhile British hauliers, which account for the vast majority, were involved in 1,956.
Campaigners argue that part of the problem is that foreign lorries are maintained to lower standards than British ones. Over one in five trucks operated by foreign hauliers have been found to be unroadworthy and often drivers from overseas cannot see other motorists because the trucks are left-hand drive.
‘It is quite clear that foreign lorries operating on UK roads are most certainly not maintained to the sort of safety level which has been created by the UK operator licensing regime,’ said a spokesman for the Freight Transport Association. ‘The UK licensing system, involving annual tests and roadside inspections, has resulted in UK lorries being the safest on the roads and, on a mile for mile basis, being involved in about half the number of accidents as cars. We estimate that, on a mile for mile basis, a foreign lorry is three times more likely to be involved in an accident than a UK vehicle.’
Robert Gifford, Executive Director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, has backed the call for tougher action. He said 'The government has at long last recognised in these figures the over-representation of foreign registered HGVs in accidents on British roads.'
![](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 4 3"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
![](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="https://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1 1"%3E%3C/svg%3E)