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Road Accidents Involving Foreign Lorry Drivers Up 10 Per Cent
Mon, 11 May 2009

The number of road accidents caused by foreign lorries in the UK has increased by 10 per cent in the past year, according to new figures compiled by traffic specialists Accident Exchange .

Lorries registered abroad are involved in around 9,000 accidents each year, causing around 30 deaths.

Most of these collisions occur as a result of 'sideswiping' whereby the vehicles pull out to overtake unaware of a car on their blind side.

The Department of Transport has tried to tackle the problem by providing magnifying mirrors to 200,000 foreign lorry drivers over the past year.

The mirrors, know as Fresnel lenses, increase visibility out of the right-hand side of the HGV as it moves into the centre lane of a motorway or the outside of a dual carriageway.

However, the Accident Exchange statistics suggest that more needs to be done to prevent such collisions from occurring.

The traffic specialists said in many cases motorists are unsuccessful in recovering damages because foreign lorry drivers often leave false details, drive without valid insurance, drive off without stopping or because victims have difficulty contacting foreign insurance companies .

According to Department of Transport statistics, truckers from Poland are the biggest culprits, followed by those from the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Hungary .
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