New data shows vital improvements in lorry safety in London

Date: Thursday 30 June 2022

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Transport for London (TfL), working with the London boroughs, the freight industry and campaign groups, has delivered a radical improvement to road safety in the UK with the introduction of the pioneering Direct Vision Standard (DVS). One year on, data shows that the world-first lorry safety scheme, which reduces lethal blind spots, has helped to save lives and prevent life-changing injuries, with serious injuries down by 64 per cent compared to 2017.

TfL's DVS scheme requires owners of Heavy Good Vehicles (HGVs) weighing more than 12 tonnes to apply for a free safety permit that assigns vehicles a star rating based on how much the driver can see directly through their cab windows in order to be able to drive in London. The scheme operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week and covers all roads in London. The standards are set to tighten further in 2024, which will deliver even safer lorries across the country.

In the first year of enforcement of DVS, 191,769 safety permits have been issued, including nearly 5,000 to 5-star vehicles, which provide the highest levels of direct vision. More than 112,000 0-star HGVs have now had safe systems fitted, improving protection for people walking, cycling or riding e-scooters or motorcycles and saving lives. The scheme's average daily compliance is also very high, with more than 94 per cent of HGVs in London now operating with a Safety Permit and hauliers reporting that they are building DVS requirements into future purchasing decisions.

Introduced with the support of London Councils, DVS forms part of TfL and the Mayor of London's Vision Zero plan to eliminate all deaths and serious injuries from London's streets by 2041. HGVs accounted for just three per cent of the overall miles driven in London from 2018-20, yet were involved in nearly half (41 per cent) of fatal collisions involving people cycling and 19 per cent involving people walking. This means that HGVs are five times more likely to be involved in a collision resulting in a fatality relative to their share of traffic.

Collision severity involving HGVs has been falling, indicating that interventions undertaken by both TfL and the freight industry in recent years are already making a positive impact. The overall number of serious injuries involving HGVs has fallen from 48 in 2017 to 17 in 2021. The first year of enforcement of the DVS and the HGV safety permit scheme has also seen a reduction in fatal collisions where vision is cited as a contributing factor. In 2021, there were a total of 11 fatal collisions involving HGVs and people walking or cycling. Of these, six fatal collisions occurred where vision was cited as a contributing factor. This compared to eight in 2020 and nine in 2019 where vision was cited as a contributing factor. The majority (four of the six) of fatal collisions in 2021 involved 0-star rated vehicles demonstrating the enhanced value of direct vision over other safe system equipment.

This is an area of focus for future phases of the scheme and TfL is aiming to introduce tighter standards from October 2024 when the minimum DVS star rating will be 3-stars. All HGVs below 3-stars will need to feature a progressive safe system that will take into account new and emerging technology or safety equipment that was not available during the design of the current safe system. In anticipation of the tightened standards from October 2024, operators are already purchasing DVS compliant vehicles at 3-stars or above.

HGVs rated 1 to 5 stars received their free safety permit automatically upon application. The operators of 0-star lorries in London are required to fit a variety of safe system equipment including:

• High quality mirrors and side guards
• Cameras covering blind spots linked to an in-cab display
• An audible warning when turning left
• Motion sensors covering the sides of the HGV at low speeds
• A prominent warning on the back of their vehicle.

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