A NEW report, produced by a team including the AA and RAC, found light commercial vehicle drivers are six times more likely to have motorway accidents compared with heavy goods vehicle drivers.

The SURVIVE report has prompted the AA to focus on the issue of vehicle maintenance as well as drivers' responsibilities in relation to accidents.

Trevor Parry, AA business services manager responsible for the organisation's truck rescue service, said: 'It is hard to be sure why light commercial vehicles came out so poorly in the studies carried out by police.

'While mechanical defects were associated with 13% of all accidents, only 4% of such incidents involved HGVs. LCVs had an unexpectedly high level of 24% of accidents associated with mechanical failure.

Typically the LCV is the workhorse of many businesses, and fleet managers need to ensure that planned maintenance takes place on a regular basis and that driver training is considered to improve the reliability and safety of all road users.

'Owing to their sheer size, commercial vehicles pose a greater potential threat to safety than cars, so drivers of LCVs and HGVs need to set the standard.'

SURVIVE is a cross-industry group set up as an initiative by the AA to look at ways of improving hard shoulder safety for patrol staff as well as other road users. It is supported by the RAC, Highways Agency, SMMT, Health and Safety Executive, the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Government.