A Transport Anomaly

A correspondent to the "Mail" complained recently about the spray and dirt thrown up by the tyres of timber trucks and asked why it was that such trucks, or trailers, did not have mudguards or mud flaps. The answer from the Ministry of Transport was to the effect that most of these vehicles ("pole type trailers designed principally or exclusively for the carriage of logs") were not bound, under Regulation 51A of the 1956 Traffic Regulations, to have either mudguards or flaps on the rear wheels. And herein lies the anomaly. A small domestic trailer like that Below is obliged to have mudguards by law. A pole type trailer like that at Top Right, does not. In the case of the vehicle at Top Right some measure of protection from spray is given by the overhang at the rear, but this does not give the same protection against spray as the flaps on the vehicle in the pic Third From Top. And the vehicle Second From Top is ever better equipped to minimise spray. Some wheels, such as those shown on the rear end of the trailer Bottom Right have no protection whatsoever, and following vehicles are drenched in spray and mud. Driving behind such vehicles can, at times, be extremely hazardous. Would not flaps on all such vehicles help minimise this danger?

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