Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-04-11-Speech-1-135"
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"en.20050411.18.1-135"2
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".
Mr President, I wish to express my warm thanks to the rapporteur, Mr Markov, who has already led us through the negotiations in a very constructive way. It is, actually, all very straightforward, Commissioner: drivers who have had a good night’s sleep are very good for safety on the roads, whilst exhausted drivers are a safety risk, or, to put it very simply, excessive tiredness is fatal. It is, then, for the sake of the drivers, of road safety and of competitiveness that we need proper driving times and rest periods that are capable of being monitored. Otherwise, the whole thing makes no sense.
We are agreed, then, that we need rest periods totalling 12 hours a day, of which 9 are to be taken in one go. It must be possible to check records covering the past 28 days in roadside checks. In any one week, drivers must not spend more than 56 hours at the wheel, and in a fortnight, they must stop after 90. We also need a realistic date for digital tachographs. The Regulation must also include a new category covering light commercial vehicles under 3.5 tonnes. Let me add, Commissioner, that we are not talking here about the delivery of pizzas, for a pizza, if it is transported – as the Committee on Transport and Tourism has suggested – for over 60 kilometres, will be cold and inedible! So we are not talking here about pizza delivery drivers, but about light commercial vehicles, which, at present, are allowed to do anything they like, including travelling at extremely high speeds, seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, with no ban on driving on Sundays or at night, and without being checked up on – the consequence of which is an increasing number of accidents.
The only figures I can quote are the German ones: between 1991 and 2001, accidents involving small vans and resulting in personal injury rose by 103%. In Germany in 2001, accidents caused by the drivers of small vans resulted in the deaths of 206 road users (an increase of 44% over 1991), serious injury to 2 548 road users (an increase of 66%) and minor injuries to 13 939. Figures provided by the road traffic police seem to indicate over-tiredness as one of the most frequent causes of such accidents, as a relatively large number of accidents involving light commercial vehicles happen in the evening or at night. The Council must stop pleading ignorance of the problem, come back down to earth and face reality.
Let me repeat that this is not about the 60-kilometre radius, or about the post and service industries. Good rules and regulations are needed to deal with this problem. If it is accepted, in principle, that over-tiredness kills and injures, then responsible rules are needed. That is what the Committee wanted, and I hope that the Commission will, sooner or later, be able to come round to its way of thinking."@en1
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