Dangerous truck had been on Kosovo mission
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A North Wales antique dealer, whose only vehicle was found to
have a potentially lethal defect, has had the authorisation on his licence cut from two vehicles to one by North Western Deputy Traffic Commissioner Mark Hinchliffe.
Hinchliffe decided to give Peter Gerecke, trading as West Coast Antiques, of Llanfairfechan, one more chance to prove himself because he had altered his maintenance arrangements and the vehicle had been used on a humanitarian run to Kosovo.
Ordering a further maintenance investigation in four months' time, the Deputy TC warned that if Gerecke let him down his licence would almost certainly be revoked.
Vehicle examiner Philip Carson said that when Gerecke's vehicle was inspected last November the holdingdown bolts on the first axle were insecure on both the nearside and offside. Movement was apparent when the steering was turned and loss of control was imminent. There were no recent inspection records, there was no system to ensure regular inspections and there was no acceptable driver defect reporting system.
For Gerecke, Carol Williams said he was not entirely to blame for the unsatisfactory situation as the garage which handled his maintenance had let him down.
Gerecke, who had only just returned from a mercy trip to Kosovo, was a German national who had come to live in Wales in 1996, starting his own business.
When the vehicle was seen by the vehicle examiner it had been at the commercial garage awaiting repair as Gerecke had noticed something was seriously wrong with the steering. The vehicle had been sent in for regular inspections but the appropriate paperwork had not been prepared.
Gerecke had now arranged for the local Volvo dealer to take over the maintenance on a sixweekly schedule.
Warning that there would be no excuse for failing to achieve satisfactory maintenance standards in the future, Hinchliffe pointed out that the responsibility for achieving such standards lay with the operator.