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'We Mean Business,' says Mr. Hanlon on Suspending Defective Vehicles
Page 52
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riERE were four evils common among some hauliers—,bad maintenance, overloading, the working of excessive hours and excessive speeds, said Mr. J. A. T. Hanlon, the Northern Licensing Authority, at a special inquiry at Newcastle on Tuesday. He continued: "Something must he done in this matter of faulty vehicles on our roads—and it will be. We mean business."
Altogether 11 Northern hauliers, whose vehicles had been involved in recent Ministry roadside spot checks, were called upon to show cause why their vehicles should not be suspended under Section 1.78 of the 1960 Road Traffic Act.
Mr. Thomas Willoughby, a partner in W. Willoughby and Son of Ashington, admitted that one of his vehicles was found to have 26 defects in the mechanism, including faulty brakes, steering and lights, and a cracked chassis. Mr. Hanlon told him: "So long as your lorry will go, you think it does not matter what kind of state it is in." He said that such conduct would not be tolerated and went on: "The public are fed up with reading stories of head-on collisions of lorries which are unfit for the road. From some of the wreckage, examiners are unable to distinguish between accident damage and what was neglect beforehand."
Mr. Hanlon suspended one of the vehicles for two months and ordered a re-exam ination.
Another haulier, Mr. Thomas Anderson, managing director of Anderson Bros. (Westerhope) Ltd., was told by Mr. Hanlon: "How dare you put a lorry on the road with defective steering, a tyre worn down to the canvas and the exhaust blowing. One of these vehicles was in a disgraceful condition by any standards and I am quite satisfied that it should never have been on the road in that State." He ordered a suspension of two vehicles—one for two months and one for three months.
After being told by Mr. Anthony G. Waugh, of A. G. Waugh Ltd., Newcastle, that more than £4,000 had been spent on repairs in the past 10 months, Mr. Hanlon said he was prepared to remit any further action in this particular case.
D. Moody (Haulage) Ltd., of Choppington; Road Haulage (Morpeth) Ltd.; James Collier of Newcastle; Hoults Ltd. of Newcastle, and A. N. Charlton of Gateshead, accepted proposals by Mr. Hanlon to suspend their vehicles for varying periods up to a maximum of 21 days. Adjournments were granted to G. Brown of Whickham, A. Page of Consett, and Tyneside Plant and Spares Ltd., of Newcastle, to allow them to produce evidence at a later date.