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This week's Eye on Wales reveals that the pressures on HGV drivers from the Continent are so intense that they are shopping themselves to the police as a way of getting a break.

Police have come across drivers who have been at the wheel for as much as 32 hours continuously as some freight companies strive to maximise profits by minimising the time their trucks are off the road.

Officers can fine those drivers they catch flouting the rules on breaks and rest days and take them off the road for a short period. But they are generally unable to act against their employers.

Chief Superintendent Geraint Anwyl, of North Wales Police leads the National Roads Policing Forum. He's concerned about their lack of control over foreign haulage companies who pressurise drivers into excessive hours.

Chief Supt Anwyl describes drivers as "modern slave labour" and calls for harmonisation across Europe of driving penalties and enforcement action.

He also reveals that while lorries engaged in international journeys represent less than one per cent of traffic on British roads, they're responsible for eight per cent of all road deaths.

The programme also speaks to Gwyn Thomas from Anglesey. His wife Dorothy died earlier this year when a German driver drove into her head-on after 19 hours at the wheel. He's still struggling to come to terms with her loss, which he sees as wholly avoidable.

And it hears from a British trucker about the pressures even they are facing to keep going in the face of tight deadlines and disparity over fuel prices and road tax.