Foreign lorry accidents cost £57m a year

14th Feb 2012

Accidents on UK roads involving foreign lorries cost the country £57 million a year, according to figures by the Accident Exchange.

On top of the annual cost, the amount of crashes involving non-British freight services has increased year-on-year by 30 per cent. The main cause of these incidents is "side-swiping" which foreign drivers account for 49 per cent of.

The government wants to introduce a £10-a-day tariff for freight drivers from outside the UK and would bring in an estimated £23 million annual revenue by 2016.

However, councillors in Kent believe they are entitled to a cut of the income as 87 per cent of foreign freight uses the county's roads after leaving the Port of Dover.

Steve Evans, chief executive of Accident Exchange said: "Foreign-registered HGVs remain one of the most difficult 'at-fault' parties to recover costs from. Issues motorists face include: invalid insurance policies; untraceable owners; drivers leaving false details or just failing to pull over at all."

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