July 21, 2009

The Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and has slammed Gov­ern­ment pro­pos­als to allow lar­ger and heav­ier trucks on New Zea­l­and roads as irre­spons­ible and short-sighted.

The Uni­on says New Zea­l­and needs to pro­mote low-impact, envir­on­ment­ally effi­cient modes such as coastal ship­ping and rail to handle the growth in freight, not big­ger trucks.

Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and Gen­er­al Sec­ret­ary Tre­vor Han­son says pro­posed changes to land trans­port rules would see lar­ger, heav­ier trucks dom­in­at­ing New Zea­l­and roads for years to come.

“Roads will become more dan­ger­ous and more crowded lead­ing to more and worse acci­dents — more blood on the road.”