Irlam cleared on defective brakes
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• Tamworth magistrates have cleared Cheshire
kit
based haulier James Ham & Sons of using a rented trailer with defective brakes, which was being hauled by a sub-contractor.
Evidence was given that the thre&axled trailer had been serviced and the brakes adjusted the clay before it was rented to [dam. The company then used it to move goods for various customers for several days before it was involved in an accident.
An examination following the accident revealed that all the brakes on the offside of the trailer were correctly adjusted. However, all three brakes on the nearside were fully wound off, with the spring loaded locking sleeve depressed and held there by each nut.
A vehicle examiner accepted that the brakes could not have wound off accidentally unless the locking sleeve on each adjuster had been jammed open. He could not say whether the sleeves had been jammed or not, but said that there were signs of recent adjustment. He agreed that the only other way in which the brakes could be totally out of adjustment was if they had been left like that or someone had unwound them with a spanner.
Chris Cotterell, the fitter who had serviced the trailer, said that all the brakes were correctly adjusted when the trailer left the workshop.
Defending, John Backhouse said the driver had not reported any defect and the brakes could not have wound off accidentally. That meant that somebody had either illegally wound the brakes off before the accident, or they had been wound off when the trailer was recovered.
He argued that lrlam was not the "user" of the trailer, as it did not own the unit and the driver of the tractor was not its employee.
The magistrates ordered lrlam's defence costs to be paid out of public funds.