Fined for lack of a limiter
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• A defective speed limiter cost Stafford-based haulage contractor Swinnerton Transport £750 in fines and costs when the company appeared before the Ashbourne magistrates.
Swinnerton pleaded guilty to using a vehicle when the speed limiter was not maintained in good and efficient working order.
Prosecuting for the Vehicle Inspectorate, Stephen Rodgers said that the offence before the court was only a specimen of a large number of such offences which were revealed by a check on the tachograph records for the vehicle concerned for April and May 1997.
After he was stopped in a check in June, driver Brian Steventon admitted that he had removed the fuse to disable the speed limiter.
It was evident even to a layman looking at the charts that the speed limit had been exceeded, said Rodgers. He pointed out that there was a possible commercial advantage to be gained by the company if the speed limiter was not working.
For the company, Christopher Lee said that managing director Peter Swinnerton had indicated that removing speed limiter fuses was not a practice of which the company was aware.
He pointed out that the tachograph charts were sent to an outside agency for analysis.
Lee maintained that the mileage involved was only a very small part of the overall total. He drew the court's attention to the High Court's decision in the case of Hart vs Bex, which laid down that in cases of absolute liability such as this, where a defendant was morally guiltless and had not been negligent, an absolute discharge was appropriate.
Fining the company £500 with £250 oasts, the magistrates said it could not avoid its responsibilities simply by employing an outside analysis agency.