Campaign for safer horseboxes
Horse’s death draws attention to the lack of rules on the design and building of horseboxes
A SET of guidelines to which horsebox manufacturers and mechanics voluntarily sign up could help protect sellers, buyers and horses, it is believed.
H&H’s report on Gorsehill Echo, a promising event horse who had to be put down after his leg went through the floor of owner Carole Mutch’s £65,000 lorry (news, 28 June) highlighted once again the lack of regulation on horsebox manufacture.
Although Mrs Mutch believed the floor in the horse area of her lorry was to be made of aluminium, it was in fact 18mm phenolic board. Jon Phillips of the Organisation of Horsebox and Trailer Owners, and independent consulting automotive engineers Northern Assessors, which inspected Mrs Mutch’s lorry after the accident, both believe this is unsuitable for the purpose, but it is entirely legal.
There are no specific laws or regulations on what materials may be used in horseboxes, for floors, ramps, walls or bulkheads, and no requirements to check soundness of these at MOTs.
Mrs Mutch told H&H she will campaign for better regulation.
Mr Phillips’ colleague Claire Barker believes the answer could be sets of guidelines rather than fighting for a law change.
“You might put a huge amount of work in and get nowhere,” she told H&H. “But small achievable steps could be the answer.”
Defra sets out regulations covering welfare of horses in transport, and Ms Barker believes with the department’s input, guidelines could cover minimum standards for constructing boxes.
Manufacturers could pledge to comply with these, giving peace of mind to buyers, and a legal safety net should an accident occur.
Similarly, were a set of guidelines on annual safety checks of horsebox bodies to be created, specialist horsebox mechanics could sign up, allowing customers to choose them for servicing or pre-MOT checks.
“This might be more achievable,” Ms Barker said. “There’s no requirement for the interior of a vehicle to be checked at MOT but this way, if you sent your vehicle to a garage that had signed up, you’d know the floor and ramp, for example, were safe.”
Mrs Mutch backed the idea.
“Anything that could stop or help prevent another accident [would be good],” she told H&H. “I don’t want what happened to Echo to happen to anyone else; that day will live with me for ever.
“But this would make responsible horse owners sit up and take notice. If it stops another accident, that’s all that matters.”
Mick Leadsham, owner of Kent-based KM Horseboxes, thought creating such guidelines is a “fantastic idea”.
“The industry self-regulates to some extent when it comes to flooring,” he told H&H. “It would be something we’d find it very easy to comply with and would be a very good idea, especially for newbuilds and for [peace of mind in] the cheaper end of the market.”
NEXT STEPS
H&H contacted Defra, in the hope the department would be interested in being involved with the creation of any guidelines.
But a spokesman said only that there are already strict EU rules on animal transport, and that the UK’s Welfare of Animals (Transport) (England) Order
2006 “sets out requirements to prevent any injury or suffering to animals while being transported”.
She pointed out that under this law there is a general requirement that the means of transport, and the loading and unloading facilities, should be “designed, constructed, maintained and operated so as to avoid injury and suffering and ensure the safety of the animals”.
“The primary responsibility for the enforcement of the welfare regulation rests with local authorities’ trading standards office,” she added.
“If there are concerns with how a vehicle has been produced, it should be referred to the local authority as it can take appropriate enforcement.”
‘I don’t want this to happen to anyone else’
CAROLE MUTCH