An emergency motion to only allow safer trucks in the city centre was agreed by a full meeting of Dublin City Council at the councillors April 2026 meeting, but the latest update on the issue outlines how council officials want to discuss the issue further at the citys mobility committee meeting after the Summer. The update to committee members was provided ahead of the next committee meeting, which is to take place next week. The motion called for Dublin City Council to require all Heavy Goods Vehicles applying for a vehicle permit to enter the citys 5-axle area restriction area to have a minimum one-star Direct Vision Standard rating in 2027, and rising progressively every year until a five-star rating is required in 2031 and onwards.The motion was in response to the death of 27-year-old Johnny Santos Xavier De Abreu, who was killed on April 1st after only three weeks in the country. The Brazilian student was cycling an electric bike at the corner of Middle Abbey Street and OConnell Street when a driver of a cement mixer was turning left. Most cement mixers are 4-axle, so are excluded from the 5-axle ban regulations (see map of ban area below). The motion said that the star rating was to be calculated using the same system used for Heavy Goods Vehicles in London, although any system in Ireland is more likely to follow the EUs General Safety Regulations, which is a similar system. In cities, a disproportionatelylarge number of fatal left-hook turns involve trucks, often involving blind spots or zones where people cycling are obscured from the view of truck drivers. A similar issue happens with pedestrians, including those walking close to the front of trucks.The package of direct vision and related measures consists of improved mirrors, cameras, and sometimes glass in the lower part of truck doors. The screens for cameras with wider or lower views are placed within the passenger-side mirrors line of sight, and alert systems are sometimes used as well.The EUs General Safety Regulation requires direct vision measures for all trucks sold after 2024. London takes a proactive approach and requires older trucks entering most of the city to be retrofitted.As reported last month, Brendan OBrien, head of the councils transport department, said he welcomed the motion, but said that using the permit system for larger HGVs to drive into the city centre would limit the direct vision requirement to 5-axle trucks, and only in little more than the city centre, compared to the London system that applies to most of Greater London.He said the council wants to make sure that the trucks that are using our city are as safe as possible, but that the suggestion, as written in the motion, would only affect a small proportion of trucks. In an update to the committee, OBrien repeated his concerns about the limit of the motion and said: Within the EU the relevant legislation is the Vehicle General Safety Regulations, which set out the requirements for the different types of vehicles. Since July 2024, all new HGVS have had to be fitted with blind spot detection, and approximately 20% of HGV permit applications are from HGVs which are covered by this regulation.He added: As this is a complicated area of EU regulation, it is proposed to have a discussion on this issue at the September SPC [committee meeting], where we will invite an expert on HGV regulations to present on the current state of EU safety requirements for HGVs.Responding to this, Cllr Ray Cunningham (Greens), who proposed the motion, said: I welcome the chance to discuss this in more detail at the SPC meeting. I would argue that the limited area and time period covered by the permit scheme should not be seen as a blocker to moving forward.HGV owners will want the capacity to deliver to all locations at all times, so the requirements we set will have a broad reach. I would also argue that sensors are not a substitute for direct vision, and only 20% of vehicles having sensors is plainly inadequate, he said. He added: Finally, we have to ask if the existing permit scheme is adequately enforced? I have a council question in June on the number of permits applied for, and Roderic OGorman is asking a question on my behalf about the number of vehicles without permits that were issued with penalty notices.IMAGE: Generic file photo of a large HGV.