More checks for speeding giants

SINGAPORE - Heavy vehicles caught speeding from Nov 1 will have to undergo extra inspections to ensure that their speed limiters are working properly.

This comes after 1,766 speeding violations by drivers of Singapore-registered heavy vehicles in the first half of this year - a big jump from the 517 in the same period last year.

This is despite a regulation stipulating that heavy vehicles, such as tipper trucks and buses, have to be installed with speed limiters, said police yesterday. The limiters restrict the maximum speeds of heavy vehicles to 60kmh.

The new checks are to be conducted on top of the annual vehicle inspection mandated by the Land Transport Authority.

In July, The Straits Times reported that the number of traffic violations committed by heavy-vehicle drivers rose by 15.6 per cent to 12,583 last year, from 10,882 in 2010. Speeding was one of the common offences.

In the past three years, 9 per cent of traffic accidents involved heavy vehicles.

Under the new rules, heavy vehicles caught speeding for the first and second time have to undergo inspections every six months for two years.

Those caught speeding subsequently must go for even more checks - an inspection every three months for two years.

The speed-limiter checks will stop only if the heavy vehicles stay free of speeding violations for two years.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Cheang Keng Keong, Commander of Traffic Police, said the new measure is part of a series of ongoing moves by the Traffic Police to improve road safety.

myp@sph.com.sg

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