I thought I should say something more about the HSE as I've probably given the impression I want them abolished or something like that. And then I'll shut up about them. In fact, I think their remit should be extended to include some aspects of what van drivers, couriers and probably taxi drivers do, along the lines of HGV and coach drivers, at least as regards working and driving hours. Unfortunately AFAIK there is no legislation on hours or training for these groups currently. But what I don't think is that they can any main focus of traffic safety, for these reasons:
- They can, obviously, only deal with working vehicles. Cars outnumber all of these added together.
- They are the most appropriate agency to deal with aspects of work connected with HGV drivers etc, for instance loading and unloading, smoking in cabs, etc, but for traffic safety it is more appropriate to have it all dealt with and enforced by traffic police. That's why we have traffic regulations affecting all traffic!
- Last and least, it's well known that in London there is a big problem with lorries and cyclists, particularly tipper trucks and cement lorries. This does seem to be a London-specific problem and so emphasising HSE's role focusses the whole campaign on London - but London already gets a lot of attention and if this is to be a nationwide effort as the Times intends, it has to look at other cities. Ideally, as Boab has pointed out, it shouldn't stop at cities.