Slack bosses risk jail if trucks crash
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II by Guy Sheppard
Haulage bosses whose vehicles cause fatal accidents are likely to face jail as Home Secretary Jack Straw promises more rigorous sentencing for negligent management.
He says the existing law governing corporate manslaughter is "undeniably ineffective" and has led to too many organisations escaping liability for errors that have cost lives, New offences being proposed include reckless killing where a person unreasonably takes a risk, knowing it could cause death or serious injury. Tho would carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
An offence of corporate killing where companies fall far below expected standards could result in unlimited fines and directors being struck off.
Consultation about the pro posals should finish by September. The government will then decide whether to legislate before the next election.
The haulage industry has seen several cases where the failings of company directors have been linked to fatal accidents.
Tony Eyors, who used to run Skipton -based Fewston Transport, was banned from being a company director for five years for negligence ( CM814 January 1998). in 1993, six people died including a twoyear-old girl after a Fewston truck with defective brakes ploughed into a van, passers by and a terrace of shops in Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire.
Last year, Stephen Bowies and his sister Julie Bowles, both directors of Berkshire-based Roy Bowles Transport, were given suspended sentences for manslaughter after failing to prevent a driver from working dangerously excessive hours. The driver, Andrew Cox, was involved in a motorway pile up which left two motorists dead.