Hours over time and breaks in seven days
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• Drivers' hours offences have cost Northern Irish driver Eugene Fitzpatrick £850 in fines and costs.
Fitzpatrick, of Newtownbutler, Co Fermanagh, pleaded guilty before Macclesfield magistrates to exceeding the daily driving limit, taking insufficient daily and weekly rest.
The court was told that a vehicle driven by Fitzpatrick and belonging to Clones Transport, of Co Monaghan, Eire, was stopped in a routine check at Rostherne. An examination of his tachograph records revealed that he had driven the same vehicle for seven consecutive days. In the 24 hours starting at 08:05hrs on 20 September, Fitzpatrick had driven for 12 hours 45 minutes. The maximum period of unbroken rest in that 24 hours was 2 hours 55 minutes.
The prosecution said Fitzpatrick had been behind the wheel of a 38-tonne artic, driving both on the Continent and in the UK at night, when he had grossly exceeded his permitted driving hours and rest breaks.
The drivers hours regula tions existed primarily for safety purposes so that tired dri vers were not behind the wheel of large goods vehicles. The weekly rest offence had to be set in the context of individual days during that week when Fitzpatrick had driven too long with inadequate rest.
The magistrates fined Fitzpatrick £750 for the weekly rest offence, with no separate penalty in relation to the others. They also ordered him to pay £100 towards the cost of the prosecution.