Truck seized after death
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• Owner-operator Bob Elder faces losing his business after his truck was involved in an accident which killed a woman pedestrian in Sicily.
The County Durham-based operator has been cleared of all blame for the incident three weeks ago but his truck has been impounded.
Under Italian law he will have to wait for another month while the authorities stand by to carry out any further investigation on behalf of the woman's family before his MAN 20.331 tractive unit can be returned.
Elder, who has been in business for nine years, is losing up to £1,000 of income a week while his six-year-old truck is off the road, but is still having to meet his monthly hire-purchase payments of £700 and other running costs.
His nightmare began in Palermo in Sicily on 14 February, where he was delivering a load of liquid latex from Jarrow for haulage firm TW Chapman of Halstead, Essex. After turning at a junction he was stopped by passers-by who told him that an elderly woman had stepped out and fallen under his truck.
Although not under arrest, he stayed with his truck in a police compound until 21 February when the police confirmed that no charges would be pressed.
Elder says that Chapman and British consul Michael Burgoyne are doing all they can to speed up the process. Meanwhile he is looking for temporary work as a driver and hopes to persuade his finance company, RoyScot, to give him more time to meet his payments.