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Road Safety Bill [HL]

My Lords, I wish to speak to Amendments Nos. 16A and 17A as amendments to the Motion that this House do agree with Commons in their Amendments Nos. 16 and 17, and to leave out ““agree”” and insert ““disagree””. I am grateful to the Minister for what he has said about level crossings. I still have to point out that they now represent 42 per cent of the accident risk faced by train operators. Many causes of train accidents have been eliminated, but this one has not, and it is getting worse. There were 229 near misses last year, 16 collisions at level crossings and 120,000 minutes of delay were caused. At bridges there was even more delay: 340,000 minutes. There were 2,000 incidents which cost £10 million to deal with and the figure is going up. The only point between me and the Minister in examining this matter is the level of penalties that are applicable to people who breach level crossings. He has said that people who bash into bridges should be charged with dangerous driving if it can be shown that they have driven without regard to the size of their lorry into a bridge which is clearly marked. Can he give me an assurance that that would be classed as dangerous driving? In that case the penalties would be worth inflicting because they would have some effect. As regards level crossings, I am sure that the Minister has seen the films that I and the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, have seen. The behaviour of some motorists—it is a small minority—is criminally insane at level crossings. There is a strong case for giving serious thought to lifting the penalties under, I believe, the Road Traffic Act 1991. They are level 3, which means that a maximum fine of £1,000 can be imposed for such acts, unless they are elevated to dangerous driving. I am well aware that in that case other penalties would accrue. I would like to hear what the Minister has to say before deciding what we should do.