(Garston and Halewood)
(Lab)
I beg to move,
That leave be given to bring in a Bill to introduce limits on
the age of tyres on buses and coaches; and for connected
purposes.
I heard your homily, Mr Speaker, about the benefits of
persistence, and I hope that the coach and bus industry has
heard it too.
This Bill would make it unlawful to operate a public service
vehicle with tyres that exceed the age of 10 years, require
the annual MOT to check and record the age of the tyres, and
give traffic commissioners powers of enforcement to sanction
any public service vehicle operators found to be using tyres
more than 10 years old.
Late on 10 September 2012, just over five years ago, my
constituent Frances Molloy lost her 18-year-old son, Michael.
He was killed when he was returning home as a passenger on a
coach from Bestival, an annual music festival on the Isle of
Wight. Two other people, Kerry Ogden, who was 23, and the
coach driver Colin Daulby, who was 63, also lost their lives.
Others were seriously injured, some in life-changing ways.
The crash was caused when the front nearside tyre of the
coach burst on the northbound A3, causing the vehicle to
swerve out of control, mount an embankment and strike a tree.
The Surrey coroner, Richard Travers, found on 16 July 2013
that the crash was caused by a 19 and a half-year-old tyre
that had recently been fitted to the coach. It had 40% of its
tread intact and was thus being used entirely lawfully. The
coroner found, on the basis of the evidence before him, that
it had burst catastrophically because it had perished by
reason of its age. I say again that this tyre was being
lawfully used. It had no outward sign to show the perilous
condition that it was in fact in. It was older than my
18-year-old constituent, Michael Molloy.
The Surrey coroner was so concerned about the facts as he
found them that he wrote to the then Secretary of State for
Transport under rule 43 of the coroners’ rules to raise:
“A concern by which, in his opinion, there is a risk that
future deaths could occur unless action is taken.”
He went on to express his concern that:
“Public Service Vehicles carrying passengers are able
perfectly legally to drive on tyres that have no restriction
as to their age and which, by reason of their age may be in a
perilously dangerous condition which there is no realistic
means of detecting”.
This was not the first such rule 43 letter received by the
Secretary of State for Transport concerning the dangers of
ageing tyres. The Gloucester coroner had written, following
an inquest he conducted in July 2010, concerning the dangers
of ageing tyres causing death.
When I discussed all this with Michael’s mother, Frances
Molloy, following the inquest verdicts at that time, I found
it hard to believe that the use of such a potentially
dangerous old tyre was in fact lawful. The fact that it was
lawful represents a lacuna in our road safety legislation. I
quickly became convinced that this gap can and should be
closed. I took Frances Molloy and David Price, an expert
forensic accident investigator who had given evidence at
Michael’s inquest, to see the right hon. Member for
Derbyshire Dales (Sir Patrick McLoughlin), who was then the
Transport Secretary, to ask him to ban such potentially
dangerous old tyres from our roads.
Banning such tyres would cost the Government nothing, because
the date of manufacture is printed on the side of each tyre
and can be easily checked at an MOT or whenever a vehicle is
stopped by the authorities. It is not as though one would
have to take a sample from the tyre and test it in a
laboratory. The date is printed on the side of the tyre. Such
a measure would save lives, because it would remove dangerous
old tyres from our roads. I believe that had such a measure
been in place before the Bestival crash, the deaths that
resulted from it could have been prevented.
I thought then, and I think now, that the case for doing this
is compelling. It was disappointing, then, that the
Government at the time simply produced guidance that
“strongly recommends that tyres over 10 years old should not
be fitted to the front axles of buses and coaches.”
The guidance goes on to state:
“Such tyres should be fitted only to the rear axles of
vehicles as part of a twin tyre combination.”
Although doing so would certainly improve safety and perhaps
stop accidents of the catastrophic nature of the Bestival
crash, the guidance does not exactly send a clear signal. I
had hoped, that following my representations, the signal that
the Government sent would be much clearer. I believe that my
constituent Frances Molloy, and the campaign that she fronts,
also expects more to be done. Making the use of such
dangerous old tyres unlawful is the only clear signal that
will have the desired effect.
New Ministers are now in post, so I say to the Government:
can we just get on and do this? The Government will find
widespread support if they back this measure. My constituent
Frances Molloy has campaigned for improved tyre safety
non-stop since her son Michael’s death. This summer, she
launched the Tyred campaign to ban the fitting of tyres that
are more than 10 years old to public service vehicles.
Merseyside is clearly behind the campaign. Liverpool City
Council and Mayor Anderson, Liverpool city region and Mayor
Rotheram, Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council, Sefton
Metropolitan Borough Council and Wirral Metropolitan Borough
Council have all passed motions backing the campaign. In
September, Mayor Rotheram and Merseytravel announced that
they had secured agreement from all their operators to ban
old tyres from all public service vehicles operating on their
network across Merseyside.
Across our nation, bus and coach operators such as National
Express and Big Green Coach are signed up. Smaller regional
operators such as Liverpool City Sights have come on board,
and more councils and companies will back this effort. The
change will be made area by area and company by company, but
it would be so much better if the Government would simply
accept that these old tyres kill and agree to ban them by
supporting the proposed legislation.
Michael Molloy was a talented and creative young writer and
musician, who was just making his way in that exciting world.
His life was full of enjoyment, love, hope and promise, but
it was needlessly cut short, tragically, in a totally
avoidable crash. His mother Frances is heartbroken. She
thought that coach travel was a safe form of public
transport, but the coach to which she entrusted her son
turned out to be a death trap because of a 19.5-year-old tyre
that no one could see was going to burst as a result of the
deterioration caused by its age. Let those of us who are now
in this House take steps to ensure that no other family has
to endure what Frances has endured. Old tyres kill, so let us
get them off our coaches and buses, and let us get them off
our roads. I commend the motion to the House.
Question put and agreed to.
Ordered,
That , Mr , Mrs , , , Ms , , , , Ms , and present the Bill.
accordingly presented the
Bill.
Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday
1 December, and to be printed (Bill 119).
