Mirrors—Equipment, Not Construction
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TIIIE Queen's Bench Divisional Court .ast week decided that driving mirrors were part of the equipment of a motor van and not part of the construction, An appeal, by police, against the dismissal . by Coventry magistrates of a summons against Sidney Clarence Hopkinson and James William Brooks, Coventry, for using a goods vehicle that was not equipped with two mirrors was allowed, and the case remitted to the magistrates with a direction to convict.
The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Parker, with whose judgment Mr. Justice Donovan and Mr. Justice Salmon agreed, said that the van was first registered in August, 1953, when it was laWful to have only one mirror, but in 1957 a regulation was made that two mirrors would be required from January 1, 1958.
The mSsistrates held that the regulation did not apply to the van until a period of five years had elapsed. They found that it was difficult to say where construction ended and equipment began, and that a mirror was a matter of construction which was covered by the five years exemption.
Parliament clearly intended, said Lord Parker, that the exemption period should apply only to construction and not to equipment. It looked as if the words "made," " fitted " or " equipped " were used indiscriminately in the regulation to cover either construction or equipment, but Lord Parker thought that, whatever words were used, one must look at the matter as one of common sense in deciding the question of construction or equipment.
He did not think that a reasonable person could conclude that a mirror was anything but equipment. The object of the exemption period was to give owners reasonable time to comply with the regulation.
AIR SUSPENSION AND DISC BRAKES ON DOUBLE-DECKER
THE use of air suspension on all four wheels of a prototype double-deck bus now being manufactured by Guy Motors, Ltd., will help to reduce the overall height to 13 ft. 5 in. without resorting to low-bridge body construction.
Other advanced features will be disc brakes all round and independent front suspension. The new double-decker will have the passenger entrance ahead of the front axle, but the engine will be vertical in the conventional forward position. The type name for the new model will be Wulf runian.
BY-PASS COMPLETED
THE last section of the Gloucester By-pass was opened to traffic this week. The new road runs from Stroud Road (B4072) to the Bristol Road (A38) and includes a new bridge over the main railway lines at Tuliley. This section is the final link in an eastern ring road for Gloucester. It has taken two years to build, and has cost more than £200,000.