t was a tragedy that could have happened to anyone.
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Stanley, Co Durham-based owner-driver Bob Elder was just lkm from his destination in Palermo, Sicily when an 85-year-old woman stepped out as he was turning round a corner at traffic lights. She fell and was crushed by the wheels of his MAN artic.
It was daylight and the traffic lights were green. Three witnesses have given statements saying that Elder — an experienced driver who has been going to Italy for eight years — was blameless and the police are not pressing charges.
Elder's truck has been impounded in Palermo for the past six weeks. He now faces the prospect of another month's wait before it is released and, apart from some temporary driving jobs, he has not worked since the incident on 14 February. He says he is losing £1,000 a week without his truck.
Under Italian law the next of kin are allowed to conduct their own investigation following a fatal accident.
Until this happens the truck must not be moved, and at a hearing two weeks ago a judge gave the woman's family 45 days to appoint an inspector and present the findings to the court.
HURRIED
Although Elder's Italian solicitor, his Euro MP and the British consul in Naples are pressing for the process to be hurried, it is unlikely that he will be able to return to work before May. If the judge decides that Elder was in some way to blame for the death, he could face a private prosecution. This is unlikely as even the police are convinced that witnesses' statements put Elder in the clear, but the procedure still has to be followed.
"It may seem like a long time, but it's not by local standards," says consul Michael Burgoyne. "I've heard of cases taking 125 days." The first delay came when police could not find one of the woman's relatives. At first Elder was told the inquest would be on 26 February so he stayed with his truck. Then he was informed it would take much longer, and he left for the UK, having spent most of his £150 running money.
His plane fare home cost another £130, and constant phone calls to the consul and his Euro MP are leaving him further out of pocket.
Elder's Euro MP Steven Hughes says he is trying to use diplomatic and personal contacts to speed up the process, but he is not optimistic: "I've got two Italian MPs roped in, including the member for Sicily; we're taking the line that Bob's livelihood is in question. But Italian bureaucracy is notoriously slow," he says.
Elder originally left the UK on 9 February with a load for Halstead, Essex-based transport firm TW Chapman. After driving to Italy he caught the ferry to Sicily, and was due to arrive in Palermo on the night of 13 February. But a Yugoslav driver warned him that the Sicilian capital was dangerous after dark, so Elder delayed his final leg until dawn.
He was near the docks and had just begun to swing right at traffic lights when a motorist waved him down: "I looked to the right expecting to see a 'no trucks' sign, but there wasn't one," he says. "I walked to the lady in the car, who was clearly distressed. I turned then to see the woman under the truck. The wheel must have gone over her stomach."
Elder was surprised by the reaction of onlookers: "People gathered around, but you'd think there would have been an angry mob. Nobody was nasty." He went to the police station and after being interviewed and photographed he was told the truck would be impounded.
Ironically, if Elder had stuck to his original plan and driven into the city during the night the tragedy would not have happened.
Before Christmas, Stockport-based owner-driver Stewart Warrender was mugged in his cab in another dangerous part of Italy on the main road from the Alps to Milan (CM 3-9 Jan). His story, and those of several other UK drivers
attacked in Italy, also convinced Elder to play safe.
Some days after his truck was parked in the police compound, Elder returned to find that someone had reversed a car into the front wing. He thinks it was an attempt to persuade the investigator that the women had been hit hard by Elder's truck as he swung round. But when he reported it to the police, they took the truck away and repaired the wing. "I thought, here I am, in a foreign country, and now they're going to frame me as well," he says.
He is bitter about the delay, which is threatening to put him out of business as bills from the insurance and finance companies mount up: "I offered to bring the truck back to the UK to have it examined immediately, but was refused," he says.
Elder does not understand why the investigation is taking so long: "I can't understand why they held my truck. The Italian system is all bogged down."
He even faces a £675 bill, charged to Chapman by the local haulier who pulled Elder's trailer the final llan into Palermo. Although Chapman boss Terry Chapman sympathises with Elder's plight, he says he has had no choice but to pass the invoice on: "We have been on the phone constantly on Bob's behalf," he says. "But it's like banging your head against the wall. We're coming up against laws that no one in this country understands."
Elder's insurance broker has told him he cannot claim his losses under the CMR international conditions of carriage: "So why am I paying all this money in insurance?" he asks.
DESPERATE
Despite this Elder is desperate to get on the road again. He will return to Italy, and hopes that Italian law will change as a result of the publicity surrounding his case: "What happened to me could happen to someone else," he says.
"We're all in the EC, but we keep our own laws. These go back to the day of the horse and cart."
1=1 by Murdo Morrison