When a Utility Can Exceed 30 m.p.h.
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WHEN an estate vehicle is being used TT as a private car, it is not subject to a 30 m.p.h. speed limit. This ruling
was given last week by the Queen's Bench Divisional Court when an appeal against a decision of the County Petty Sessional Justices at Durham was dismissed with costs.
The magistrates had refused to convict William James Bell, Thornaby Road, Thornaby-on-Tees, of exceeding 30 m.p.h. on a derestrieted road last August. A C licence had been issued, but the justices found that at the time the vehicle was being used as a passenger vehicle, and therefore not subject to the goods-vehicle speed limit.
Giving judgment, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Goddard, who sat with Mr. Justice Oliver and Mr. Justice Byrne, said that the real question was whether the utility van was a goods vehicle in this case. Under the Road and Rail Traffic Act, 1933, it was limited to 30 m.p.h. only when carrying goods. This was a satisfactory conclusion of the law, because it was consonant with reason and common_ sense.
Lord Goddard added: "The justices are to be congratulated on the way they found their way through this rather difficult mass of regulations."
QUARTER'S EXPORT RECORD
EXPORTS of vehicles in March this La year were higher than in March, 1951. A total of 13,270 commercial vehicles, valued at £7-1-m., was sent overseas, compared with 10,040 units in March last year.
The first quarter's vehicle exports achieved a record_high value for the first three months of any year.
'GETTING IT RIGHT THE oil used by Messrs. G. Cooper and Son, Oakengates, Wellington, Salop (" The Commercial Motor," . April 11) is Snowdon's Royal Snowdrift Roil 30 heavy duty, and not as stated in that issue. The firm also employ a Zwicky (not Zuichy) fitter in their fuelstorage system.