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Road Safety Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 127:"After Clause 32, insert the following new clause—"    ““GENERAL PROVISIONS AS TO TRAFFIC SIGNS    In section 64 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 (c. 27) (general provisions as to traffic signs) after subsection (6) insert— ““(7)   Regulations made under subsection (1)(a) above shall require all distances, dimensions and speeds marked on traffic signs to use the metric system exclusively, in the case of— (a)   special roads (motorways) within 18 months of this Act coming into force, (b)   strategic and trunk roads within two years, and (c)   all other roads within five years.”””” The noble Earl said: I know perfectly well that Members on all sides of the Committee will delight in shooting me down in flames on this amendment. It seeks to make it necessary for all traffic signs to be in metric in respect of speeds, distances and dimensions. I believe that one day a Minister will promote legislation that achieves just what I am now proposing. The amendment will make it easier to comply with speed limits because the speedo display will be much clearer with only one set of graduations on the dial. The Committee will not be aware that around 400,000 lorry drivers already have to contend with a tachograph whose primary speed display is in kilometres per hour and not in miles per hour. In the early 1980s, when I worked at Smiths Industries, we accidentally produced 3,000 speedos with an imperial counter stack mechanism, although the speedo dial was in kilometres per hour. They were fitted in cars, and the recall costs were horrendous. Although we generally understand kilometres, as we frequently drive on the Continent, when our continental partners drive in the UK they have absolutely no idea at all how far 37 miles is. The grid squares on an Ordnance Survey map are one kilometre square, so that would work very nicely with a speedo in metric. Also, sooner or later—this will interest the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley—there will be a terrible accident when a continental lorry hits a railway bridge just at the wrong moment and causes a derailment. We need one set of measurements on our roads to eliminate an obvious source of confusion and prevent a possible tragedy. I beg to move.