BRiE" Discharge on loose nuts
Page 18
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• One missing wheelnut and another that was loose led to Travis Perkins Trading and one of its drivers admitting using a vehicle likely to cause danger. However, both the Stockport-based company and driver Paul Edwards were given absolute discharges by Macclesfield magistrates.
John Heaton, prosecuting for the Department of Transport, said the missing nut should have been spotted on a visual examination by the driver. Although wheel-loss was not imminent, as there were eight remaining nuts, it was the beginning of a problem that might have proved danger ous, Heaton said. He maintained that the missing nut had been absent for some time because of rust and dirt on the threads.
Fleet engineer Duncan McLean said the vehicle had been sent into a garage for attention a month before and at that time both rear wheels were removed. He believed the practice of returning the wheel to the hub and tightening two opposing nuts to hold the wheel in place while the remaining nuts were tightened had been followed but the fitter had failed to return to tighten up the two holding nuts.
He pointed out that the missing nut and the loose nut were opposite one another on the wheel.
Ian Rothera, defending, argued that the company had not been at fault in any way.
He said the driver had assured him that he had checked the tyres and lights, though conceding he had not made a physical check of the wheelnuts, and was reasonably certain that if one of the wheelnuts was missing he would have spotted it.