End of the road for safety research?

摘要

The impartiality of the Transport Research Laboratory could be jeopardised by the government's privatisation plans, warns former transport minister Peter Bottomley. The two groups in the running to take over the 66-year-old government research organisation made their final proposals to the Department of Transport late last month. The existing management is proposing a buyout and would set up a foundation to carry on the work of the lab much as it is now. The other group is a controver- sial consortium consisting of consultants and two bas- tions of the road lobby—the AA and the RAC.