Hauliers oppose motorway ban

Hauliers and coach owners have joined in opposition to the ban on their vehicles using the outside lane on motorways, an offence that will attract penalty points from next month.

Jimmy Quinn of the Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) described the law as idiotic and dangerous because it removes any discretion from the driver to react.

Trucks and buses are currently barred from the traffic lane "nearest the right-hand edge of a carrigeway" under the 1997 Road Traffic Regulations. From April this offence will attract between one and three penalty points.

According to a Garda source, this effectively rules out the possibility of trucks using the outer lane even to overtake. He said that while it was "police discretion and we would hope common sense would prevail, strictly speaking lorries and buses cannot use or overtake on the outside lane."

Quinn anticipates convoys of trucks and coaches stuck behind a slow vehicle on the inside lane of motorways. He said preventing heavier vehicles from access to different lanes depending on driving circumstances made motorways more dangerous.

"This system would make sense in Britain where they have three-lane motorways - that's where they copied the legislation from - but it makes no sense here. It is universal practice that when a motorway joins another with two streams of traffic, such as the airport junction on the M1, the safest thing to do is move over to the outside lane to allow oncoming traffic access. Here, we will either have to keep going or slow down drastically to allow that traffic in. What they are proposing is a dangerous practice and idiotic."

The IRHA is due to meet the new Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Pat the Cope Gallagher, at the end of the month when it hopes to address these concerns. Coach owners are also frustrated by the lane restriction and the attachment of penalty points to this offence.

One company, Matthews Coach Hire, has written to the Minister for Transport, Martin Cullen, challenging him over the 80km/h speed limit for coaches on motorways and pointing out that the rules do not apply to dual-carriageways.

Mr Matthews, who operates a commuter service between Dublin and Dundalk along the M1, noted that the recommendations from the Working Group on Speed Limits (2003) for public service vehicles using a dual carriageway or motorway were not implemented. This body recommended a top speed of 90 km/h for coaches.

Mr Matthews said: "The result of the lane restriction is that a bus cannot overtake on a motorway. The application of the lane ban will result in convoys of buses in the left lane.

"In the context that there is no minimum speed limit for a vehicle on a motorway, one slow-moving vehicle, most likely a fully laden truck or indeed a double-deck bus, will result in a tailback of slow moving buses and trucks. When this is combined with merging traffic, the result defeats the entire purpose of a motorway."

Mr Matthews said in Britain the situation was clearer. There, buses and coaches were barred from the outside lane on three lane motorways but on two-lane motorways all vehicles could use this lane to overtake.

Conor Faughnan of AA Roadwatch said it was only the punishment, not the law, that was being changed. "There are good reasons why heavy goods vehicles are subject to lower speed limits and if HGV drivers respect the law they should have nothing to worry about."

A Department of Transport spokeswoman said enforcement was a matter for the Garda and the Courts and added that she hoped common sense would prevail.