Dear Mr Simpson Thank you for your email of 2 July enclosing a Regulation 28 Report to Prevent Future Deaths, following the inquest into the death of Terence Charles Scott Duncan_ am sorry to hear of Mr Duncan's death and offer my sincere condolences to his family and friends. am replying as the Minister responsible for road safety. The Department is strongly committed to improving the safety of all road users, and this includes ensuring that new vehicles are approved to demonstrate that comply with a range of technical requirements before can be sold. The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) is the principal body for vehicle regulations and the UK is an active member of its technical committees_ Once a vehicle enters service the relevant requirements are the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 (C&U): In relation to sideguards, both UNECE Regulation 73 and C&U permit extendable trailers to be placed on the market and used respectively, without sideguards in the location of the increase in length when the trailer is extended. These provisions have been in place for many years, and have asked officials to review the requirements, and to make proposals to amend the international regulation to require sideguards when the trailer is extended, where possible. This would increase the number of vehicles fitted with sideguards while continuing to recognise that this is not possible in all cases. In addition, consideration is also being given to amending C&U to ensure that sideguards which are required for the purpose of the original vehicle approval remain in place throughout the life of the vehicle. trust that these two actions will address your concerns on the absence of sideguards on extendable trailers. The Department will continue to monitor the they they

effectiveness of vehicle safety regulations to identify amendments which could help to improve road safety: Best wishes, LILIAN GREENWOOD MP MINISTER FOR THE FUTURE OF ROADS