Euro MPs back Birmingham mum’s call for safer lorries

A campaign by a bereaved Birmingham mum to change European law to make lorries safer has taken a big step forward after MEPs in the European Parliament’s Transport Committee voted to back tougher design standards for a new generation of HGVs.

Nazan’s Fennell’s Live in Hope campaign began when her 13-year-old daughter Hope was killed by a lorry in Kings Heath in 2011 as she pushed her bike across the road. A coroner ruled that the driver could not have seen her due to blind spots from the cab of the 18 tonne vehicle.

Under proposed changes, lorry drivers’ sightlines would be improved by reducing blind spots under the front windscreen and the side of lorry cabs. The new designs would also include safer cab fronts to reduce the damage caused by impacts with cyclists and pedestrians and other road vehicles.

The proposals are also backed by Rugby-based cement manufacturer Cemex UK, which provided lorries fitted with experimental larger mirrors and sensors for a campaign rally in Brussels last month with Chris Boardman to lobby MEPs.

A report outlining the proposed changes in lorry design standards was backed by a majority of MEPs on the Transport Committee in Brussels.