Why truckers should get the hard shoulder

ON the ‘Late Late Show’ recently the Minister for Transport, Seamus Brennan, said that ‘overtaking’ was one of the three most common causes of accidents on Irish roads.

Over the last decade or two most or all national primary roads have been upgraded to two traffic lanes, each 12 feet wide, with a hard shoulder on each side of nine feet or less.

Between Limerick and Roscrea, a national primary road, I’ve often noticed the drivers of a heavy commercial vehicle pull over to the left, straddling the yellow line which marks the hard shoulder. Technically they may be breaking a traffic law, but by doing so they give an extra four or five feet to the build-up of cars behind them, enabling motorists safely to overtake.

I think such truck drivers should be allowed to do so legally. A hard shoulder is a sort of safety net designed for use in an emergency to avoid an accident. Personally I’ve never heard of a shoulder serving that purpose. In structural engineering, incidentally, an ultra-cautious designer is termed ‘a belt and braces man’ because he makes doubly sure everything stays up!

Olifear Ó Muirí,

Belleen,

An tÁonach,

Co Tiobrad Árann.