Longer-lorries: fewer collisions and good for the environment, says DfT

The Department for Transport has hailed longer lorries that have in a trial reduced vehicle kilometres driven by 10.6m but which data suggests have not increased the likelihood of accidents.

The scheme, which uses around 1,800 trucks using semi-trailers up to two metres longer than the standard 13.6m vehicles which the industry has pressed the case for, has demonstrated that the vehicles are involved in around 70% fewer collisions per kilometre compared to the average for standard articulated lorries, the DfT said. Following these results, the Department is to launch a consultation on whether to extend the trial that started in 2011, and increase the number of vehicles involved.

The trial document shows that there was one more severe casualty involving the lorries in 2015 compared to the year before, whilst the overall accident rate remained better than average for HGVs. The trial looked at whether longer lorries are higher-risk on urban roads, but this is hidden by the fact long-distance motorway travel dominates the data, and predicts that "if the rate of urban incidents to date continued, then we would be confident that the rate was significantly lower than the background population incident rate".