Loads of trouble can be avoided
Page 20
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By Les Oldridge,
TEng (CO), MIMI, AMIRTE REGULATION 90 (2) of the Motor Vehicle (Construction and Use) Regulations 1973 requires that the load carried by a motor vehicle or trailer shall at all times, while the vehicle is being used on a road, be so secured or be in such position that danger is not likely to be caused to any person by reason of the load, or any part of it, falling from the vehiole or by moving in relation to the vehicle. In other words an offence is committed if any part of the load falls from the vehicle or the load moves on the lorry so that danger is caused.
The variety of articles which fall off lorries is incredible: I have personal knowledge of crates of apples, cases of sherry, bags of coal, carrots, an electric motor weighing 5cwt„ bags of potatoes, bales of straw and timber falling off lorries into the roadway. Recently a lorry driver was fined £20 for using a lorry with an insecure load when a spare wheel fell off his lorry into the path of an oncoming car.
Not specified
Nowhere in the law is it laid down how loads should be secured except that they must be fastened so that no danger is caused. It is not specified whether twistlocks, chains or ropes shall be used for load. restraint systems, but in all cases the vehicle and its load must be safe.
What is " safe" is for the courts to decide. Roping and sheeting may be perfectly adequate for one type of load, yet ropes used in another set of circumstances may lead to a prosecution. There have been successful prosecutions, for example, where containers have been secured with ropes instead of twistlocks.
Obvious danger
If part of a load actually falls from a lorry the driver would have difficulty in convincing a court that no danger was caused; even a lightweight parcel falling on to the roadway may cause a motorcycli-t to swerve and fall. An offence can be committed if the load moves even though nothing actually falls from the lorry. If a load of straw, piled very high, starts to move and causes the lorry to lean dangerously to one side with a risk that it may tip over when negotiating a bend with an adverse camber, then an offence against this section would be complete. The same would apply if the load moved forward penetrating the driver's cab when the brakes were applied, or sideways so that there was a danger of the protruding load colliding with oncoming traffic.
Code of practice
Although the law gives no guidance on the way loads should be secured the DoE has published a Code of Practice Safety of Loads on Vehicles, HMSO, price 30p; this booklet is not, in itself, law but I feel that in a contested case under Section 90 the court might be guided as to what is the proper method of load restraint by what is laid down in the Code.
It was held in Gifford v Whittaker (1942) 1 All ER 604, where crates fell off a lorry when going around a sharp bend, that the driver was responsible for using the lorry with the load improperly secured although the loading was done by some person over whom he had no control. The person actually responsible for the loading could also be charged with using the vehicle in contravention of this regulation.
There is a maximum penalty of £400 for an offence under this section.