News Where now for super MOT? Will vested interests and ideological inflexibility defeat common sense?


The story so far: The European Commission has proposed a pan European MOT in the belief that it will assist the objective or reducing road traffic accidents. In the debate that has followed


there has been heavy lobbying by vested interests who operate the expensive testing facilties that would b needed if the MOT as envisaged is adopted throughout the EU. The proposed MOT will be far


more expensive than the current British MOT and most of the existing businesses that currently operate the service in the UK would be unable to afford the investment needed to satisfy the enhanced criteria of the proposed testing protocols.


MAG and FEMA have flagged up the fact that vehicle defects are a negligible factor in most accidents. Here in the UK MAG has the support of many MEPs who have heard MAG’s case and


agree that this is gratuitous legislation that is more about serving vested interests than addressing a serious issue. Not everyone is listening.


Just when we thought motorcycles were going to be exempted from the Euro super MOT the European Parliament voted to leave them in. During a Plenary Meeting (a session of all MEPs) of the European Parliament in July, MEPs voted in favour of including motorcycles in the periodical technical inspections proposal.


The proposal has come from the commission whose members have been heavily lobbied by interested parties who operate inspection facilities.


While the latest vote is not good for FEMA’s campaign to exclude motorcycles, this is not the end of the story. The vote


Indian Triiumph Beware dubious filtering advice


Story courtesy of BDN


Triumph says it will commence assembly and sales operations in India this November and has recruited an experienced local to head up its business there. Vimal Sumbly, formerly general manager for sales at second-biggest indigenous Indian bike manufacturer Bajaj Auto, has been appointed as managing director. Sumbly is currently looking for dealer partners across strategic locations throughout India.


The company is likely to begin with its cheaper Bonneville twin and 675cc triple models assembled from kits, to minimise import tariffs. But unconfirmed reports of smaller bikes wholly manufactured in India have been dismissed by Triumph who say it will be manufactured at one of its three factories in Thailand. Triumph’s production plant at Manesar, an industrial city in Gurgaon province close to the Indian capital New Delhi, is now nearing completion.


As The ROAD went to press we were sent a story about the legalities of filtering through traffic which we consider is misleading.


The author thinks there has


effectively been a change in law based on legal precedent. The author, Simon Bradley concludes: “Ladies and Gentlemen, filtering past stationary traffic is no longer a grey area – it’s completely legal”. The ROAD’s road safety columnist Kevin Williams disputes this claim. Kevin insists that in essence all cases will be considered on their merits. Cars emerging from side turnings or performing U turns will not necessarily be held 100% to blame if riders are not exercising reasonable caution. In short, you can’t come flying down the outside of a line of jammed traffic at 30mph in dense complex urban traffic situations and imagine you will be 100% in the right if you get knocked off.


was close and the discussions are ongoing so this is not an outright victory for the Commission and pro Euro MoT lobby. Those who voted for exempting


motorcycles clearly recognised that vehicle defects are a tiny factor in causing accidents that are overwhelmingly the result of human error.


Against these voices of realism we have MEPs of several nations characterised by their often irrational enthusiasm for legislation. Principally these were the Netherlands, Sweden, the French Socialist and Greens. The amendment calling for ‘improved safety for motorcyclists’ scraped in, backed up as it was by flawed Commission statistics. These statistics were provided by the periodic testing industry (companies that specialise in MoTs ), championed by MEPs Durant and el Khadraoui who are


opposing their own government positions for reasons best known to themselves. This duo, FEMA maintain, have presented themselves as ‘motorcycle safety experts’ in the absence of any direct experience of motorcycling. Furthermore, neither of these two MEPs would meet the FEMA executives who travelled to Strasbourg to talk to them.


There is now a compromise proposed which places


responsibility on the Commission to provide unbiased evidence to compare safety statistics of countries with and without periodic testing. With such a tight vote (322/354), the Parliament is clearly divided on this issue and MEPs have requested TRAN to find a compromise with the Council. Discussion with the Council will start after the summer break.


Single on-road test dropped Examination of options leads to a ‘no’ decision


The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport, Stephen Hammond has dropped the idea of having a single on- road motorcycle test. The test review was commissioned to consider alternative ways of providing a single event practical motorcycle test that could be carried out on the road in a way that would maintain riding standards, protect safety and increase accessibility of the test for candidates, while meeting the requirements of the European legislation.


The test is currently carried out in two separate modules. Module one is undertaken off-road on a purpose built manoeuvring area and tests the higher speed and slow manoeuvres. Module two is the practical on-road ride. The research, which ended in March this year, used test-ready learners to complete the proposed on-road manoeuvres and the existing module one manoeuvres under mock test


conditions.


Direct comparisons were made between the on-road and module one test. The research concluded that an on-road test:


l Would result in a substantial increase in the number of accidents during tests;


l Increase the duration of the test, which would result in higher costs for both candidates and the Driving Standards Agency;


l Result in significantly more faults than the off-road test; and be likely to encounter technical difficulties in identifying suitable sites with appropriate signage, and suitable speed measurement equipment.


The minister therefore


concluded that a single event on- road motorcycle test would not be in the interests of motorcycle test candidates or their trainers and examiners.


The ROAD 7


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