Parking, loading and unloading : 1
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VIUCH has been said and written about the law concerning • noving vehicles, but little atten:ion has been paid to the quite 1:onsiderable amount of legisation dealing with vehicles Nhen they are stationary, al:hough the subject is included in :he Royal Society of Arts' CPC iyllabus.
The offence of obstructing the lighway is not a new one. The -lighway Act 1835 and the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 contain -nany obstruction offences; Section 78 of the 1835 Highway Act, for example, makes it an offence ''for the driver of any carriage to leave a cart or carriage on the highway to obstruct the passage thereof" This offence was punishable by a £5 fine (or £10 if the driver was the owner) or imprisonment in default, le if the fine was not paid.
This offence highlights the basic right of any person to use the highway but only to have free passage over it. A highway is provided to travel along, and use of it which is unreasonable, wilful or negligent or which prevents the right of another road user to free passage over it is an obstruction.
The first of the more modern laws dealing with the subject is found in the Motor Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1972, which reads; "No person in charge of a motor vehicle or trailer shall cause or permit the motor vehicle or trailer to stand on a road so as to cause any unnecessary obstruction". There is a maximum fine of £100 for this offence. This regulation has been largely superseded, in urban areas, by "No waiting" and "Limited waiting" orders made by local authorities, but where such orders are not in force the C and U Regulation is still used for prosecutions. This law applies anywhere; a trunk road, a busy shopping centre or a quiet culde-sac are all places where the regulation is applicable. Over the years there have been a number of stated cases concerning this law. Ellis v Smith (1962) 3 All ER 954 is of particular interest to psv men. It was held in this case that a bus driver who left a bus to go off duty, without handing it over to his relief driver, was guilty of allowing the bus to cause unnecessary obstruction.
Where a taxi driver executed a U-turn in a busy street and thereby held up traffic for about a minute, it was held to be an unnecessary obstruction. Wall v Williams (1966) Crim LR 50.
A motorist argued that he was not causing an unnecessary obstruction when he parked in a line of cars for five hours, but it was held that he was guilty. Solomon v Durbridge (1956) 120 JP 231.
Have we all the right to park outside our premises? No. In Vanderpant v Mayfair Hotel Co (1930) it was held that the right of the occupier of premises abutting a highway to make use of it for loading and unloading is subject to the right of the public to use the highway.
Section 24 of the Road Traffic Act 1972 reads: "If a person in charge of a vehicle causes or permits the vehicle or a trailer drawn thereby to remain at rest on a road in such a position or in such a condition or in such circumstances as to be likely to cause danger to other persons using the road, he shall be guilty of an offence". The maximum penalty for this offence is a £100 fine, but the court may disqualify the offender from driving and it must endorse his driving licence. This offence is usually committed by thoughtless parking on a bend or by a road junction and by so doing causing other traffic to travel on the wrong side of the road, but this is not always the case.
In Maguire v Crouch (1941) a vehicle left unattended by the kerb, with the hand-brake off on a slight gradient, moved forward of its own wight and collided with a post, at which point the driver regained his vehicle, but before he could stop it, it injured a pedestrian. It was held it had been left at rest "in such circumstances as to be likely to cause danger to other persons using the road".
The C and U Regulations contains another section, Regulation 125, which deals with the dangerous practice of opening vehicle doors without heeding traffic about to overtake. Anyone who has done much cycling will know how frightening it is to have the door of a parked vehicle opened suddenly right in one's path. Regulation 125 makes it an offence for any person, not necessarily the driver, to open any door of a motor vehicle or trailer so as to cause injury or danger to any person.
C and U Regulation 127 quires a person in charge o: trailer, which is detached frc its drawing vehicle, to preven1 least one wheel from revolvii either by setting the brake or the use of a chain. The I method seems crude, but it mi be remembered that certain ic trailers do not require brakes. presumably the inclusion of I chain method caters for these, There are two separate regi_ tions requiring engines to stopped when vehicles E stationary. Regulation 117 aimed at the prevention of noi It requires the driver, when vehicle is stationary, otherw than through an enforc stoppage through traffic cor tions, to "stop the action of E machinery attached to or for ing part of the vehicle so far may be necessary for t prevention of noise". Exempt is provided when the running the engine is necessary to d with a defect in it; when working of machinery is nec sary for some ancillary purpo eg discharging a bulk carr and for a motor vehic propelled by producer gas p duced by plant carried on vehicle or on a trailer drawn Regulation 124 makes it an fence to cause or permit a mc vehicle to be on a road ur tended by a person licensed drive it unless the engine stopped and the relevz parking brake effectively set. requirement to stop the eng does not apply to a fire briga police or ambulance vehicle one which is gas propelled gas produced on the vehicle.
The regulation does not ap to a vehicle where the engin' required to be used to clt special machinery or to mainl the electrical power of the teries of the vehicle at a IE required for the driving of si machinery. The latter provis is useful where an electric wi or similar device is in use.