HEAVY VEHICLES

HEAVY VEHICLES

26.

Mdm Cynthia Phua asked the Minister for Transport (a) in each of the last three years, what is the number of accidents that involved heavy vehicles being driven past speed limits; (b) whether the Ministry will look into speed-limiting devices and enforcing even more stringent speed limits on these heavy vehicles; and (c) what has the Ministry done to prevent heavy vehicles (lorries and buses) from parking in private housing estates.

Mr Raymond Lim Siang Keat: Sir, over the past three years, an average of 22 speed-related fatal and injury accidents involving heavy vehicles were reported to the Police a year.

The Member asked about more stringent speed limits for heavy vehicles. We have considered this carefully, but decided against it. This is because lowering the present speed limit for heavy vehicles will increase the speed differential between heavy vehicles and other vehicles travelling on the same roads which could in turn create more safety concerns – in general, a larger speed differential between different classes of vehicles could lead to higher incidences of vehicular interactions such as lane changing, braking and overtaking. Our focus should therefore be on ensuring that drivers of heavy vehicles drive safely within the prescribed speed limits.

A speed limiter regime was introduced by the Traffic Police in 1999 to curb speeding violations by heavy vehicles. As the regime has been in place for 10 years and the existing speed limiters are prone to tampering, the Traffic Police has explored the latest technologies available in the market with the intent to enhance the present speed limiter regime. Last year, Traffic Police conducted a three-month trial to test the effectiveness of a Global Positioning System (GPS) based system to enhance the present speed limiter regime for heavy vehicles. The enhanced system consists of a front-end tracking device installed in the vehicles and has the ability to detect tampering via a back-end monitoring system. The enhanced speed limiter regime for heavy vehicles will be introduced by the Traffic Police in due course.

The parking of heavy vehicles is regulated under the Vehicle Parking Certificate (VPC) Scheme. This requires all such vehicles to secure a parking lot in an authorised Heavy Vehicle Park. Heavy vehicles must be parked overnight in the designated parking lot when not in use, and not along public streets or in private housing estates. Enforcement actions will be taken against vehicle owners who do not comply.

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