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The Ministry of Transport is trying to plug the gaps in the safety of road freight after the numerous accidents that have recently occurred on the Greek roads. All matters relating to the control and safety of freight will be included in a bill, as reported by Minister of Transport Michalis Chrysochoidis.

In early October, a TIR truck caused a bloody accident on the Egnatia Odos highway near Veria, crushing dozen of vehicles that had stopped because of road works. Five people died because of the tragic accident and several hours later, there was another accident on the same highway, fortunately without casualties. In addition, yesterday morning a truck caused a chain reaction accident with 11 cars on the Athens-Lamia highway near Metamorfosi, slightly injuring one person.

The recent frequent accidents with TIR trucks have raised questions about the quality of the checks.

Joint teams comprising police, traffic police, port and customs officials are responsible for monitoring the safety of heavy freight vehicles. As recognized by managers in the Ministry of Infrastructure, the checks carried out by these joint teams have however significantly decreased, mainly due to lack of staff and to the reduced allowances received by the employees for their performance.

Four main points

According to sources, with the new regulations that will be tabled in Parliament in November, the Ministry will try to put order in the inspections of freight vehicles, which are now the responsibility of six different bodies. According to sources, the proposal of the Ministry will include four main points, as follows:

• The legislation will be codified so that the violations and fines be calculated easily and quickly. The violations will be categorized as minor, serious and dangerous. For example, if it is established that a TIR truck has damaged spoilers, this will be considered a minor offence, if its stop lights are not operating, this offence will be more serious, etc.

• Border municipalities will be able to form their own joint inspection teams.

• The fines for violations by TIR trucks will be paid immediately and electronically, especially at weekends, when the public services do not operate. The immediate electronic payment is convenient for those municipalities that have reported debts from unpaid fines, but also for the drivers who will have to stop the vehicle circulating if they do not pay the fine.

• The Unified Control Service will be central and will have a permanent character.

The point is to inspect on an equal basis both Greek and foreign carriers, as noted by the industry which informs that there are thousands of TIR trucks with foreign registration circulating in Greece that are not checked by anyone. Moreover, according to sources, the joint teams avoid checking foreign carriers because of practical difficulties. The drivers either pretend they do not speak any language other than their mother tongue or their documents are not translated in Greek, since not a single European directive requires the documents of the driver (except the driver's licence and the special transit card) to be written in Latin characters.

From May to September the Ministry of Infrastructure performed pilot checks that identified 46,705 violations in Greek TIR trucks and 14,000 in foreign ones. Of these, the dangerous violations detected in the Greek vehicles numbered 800 and, in foreign, 350.

As for the technical inspections, trucks must pass them every year. As stated by industry representatives, the greatest danger is the spread of false certificates for technical inspection but the traffic policemen are unable to verify their authenticity as there is no electronic register of the technical inspections performed.