Road Safety Bill [HL]

moved, as an amendment to Amendment No. 51, Amendment No. 52:"Line 8, leave out from ““to”” to end of line 9 and insert ““all vehicles first registered on or after 1st January 2006””" The noble Viscount said: The noble Earl, Lord Attlee, has reminded me that I have not declared certain interests. I should have done so last week. These include being president of GEM Motoring Assist; president of the Driving Instructors’ Association—and I hold the latter’s ““diamond”” advanced driving certificate; and a member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists. I hold a gold driving certificate from RoSPA, I am police class 1 trained, and I still do advanced roads policing traffic courses. In addition to that, I still go out regularly on traffic patrol. Unfortunately my noble friend Lord   Davies of Oldham is not in his place, but I was in the area where he lives only last Friday night. My Amendment No. 52 is an amendment to Amendment No. 51 tabled by the noble Lord, Lord   Hanningfield. His amendment is excellent, but I wonder whether it goes far enough. Consider a car at night travelling at the national speed limit on a motorway which is the first to come across a large vehicle crashed into the central reservation and lying side-on to the motorway. The driver of the car will, in all probability, not see the large vehicle and will collide with it. The car driver will almost certainly be caught in the collision. If the large vehicle has reflective tape affixed to it, the chances of a crash happening are reduced, as the vehicle will be seen sooner. That aspect has been addressed by the noble Lord. That is all well and good, but why is the safety proposal limited to large vehicles only? If one car hits another in similar circumstances, death, once more, is certainly inevitable. So my amendment proposes that all vehicles should have reflective tape affixed all around, thereby adding to their visibility in the dark. The noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, addressed the cost of the fixing of reflective tape. I am led to believe that it will not be significant—less than half a tank-full of fuel. That is considerably less than the insurance implications of a crash. I have reflective tape fixed to my vehicle and so does my wife. Members of the Committee may believe that as number plates are already made of reflective material the small vehicle would be seen well in advance of approach. That is why I have specifically talked about vehicles side-on. I beg to move.