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More Dangerous Vehicles Being Taken Off UK Roads
Thu, 14 Jan 2010

An increasing number of dangerous vehicles are being taken off UK roads by the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA), it has been revealed.

According to a report by the National Audit Office (NAO), the number of commercial vehicles removed by the agency from Britain’s roads increased from 28,900 in 2007/08 to 36,500 in 2008/09.

However, the report found that the agency’s performance in preventing dangerous lorries and buses from operating varies widely across the country.

It also claimed that VOSA’s roadside checks are not effective enough as they focus too much on vehicle safety and roadworthiness and less on driver performance and behaviour, and that some of the agency’s roadside checkpoints are in the wrong places.

Commenting on the report’s findings, NAO chief Amyas Morse said: "VOSA needs to focus its resources on those activities and areas where it can have most impact: for example, by looking at where its staff and stopping sites are located around the country."

"It needs to help to educate commercial drivers and properly identify those vehicles which pose the greatest danger. It also needs to work with other organisations, at home and abroad, to ensure that drivers and vehicles from outside the UK are as safe as those from within the UK.’

Official figures show that although the number of accidents involving commercial vehicles in the UK is falling, there was still more than 17,000 cases of such vehicles being involved in road accidents in 2008.
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