It fell off the back of a lorry — honest
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• A trailer board that flew off on the motorway almost hitting a police patrol car led to the operators of the vehicle, A&S Haulage (Goole) and driver James Tomkins, appearing before the Rotherham magistrates charged with using a vehicle with dangerous parts. Both the company and Tomkins were given an absolute discharge, however.
For the prosecution it was said that a patrol car was following-a Seddon Atkinson artic along the North-bound carriageway of the 1141 motorway. As the patrol car was about to overtake, a large plank flew from the lorry over the top of the car, just missing it, and landed on the central reservation of the road.
When the vehicle was stopped it was found that one of the boards from the floor of the trailer was missing, that the bolts were rusty and that all the heads were missing.
Tomkins said he had delivered a load to Ilkeston and he had helped with the unloading, walking over the back of the trailer. He was certain that the board had been in position then.
Stephen Kirkbright, defending, said the trailer had been regularly inspected at intervals of about eight weeks and it had passed its annual test on June 17, a month before the incident. Though the bolts were corroded, that would always be the case as they were exposed to dirt, salt and water. The trailer bolt heads were shiny where they had been broken off.
The employee who had loaded the vehicle had stated the trailer was in good condition when he loaded it. The vehicle examiners could not have thought that there was anything wrong at the time of the annual test and the evidence showed that the bolts had fractured during the course of the journey and that neither the company or the driver could have been aware that that was likely to happen.
The High Court ruled that where a driver could not have known that a defect would suddenly arise he ought not to be prosecuted and if he was he should be given an absolute discharge. The defendants were morally blameless for what had occurred.