Tyreless tractive unit
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• A Wigan owner-driver who had no tyre on one wheel of his tractor unit when it was spot checked received a formal warning by North Western Deputy Traffic Commissioner John Levin.
Vehicle examiner Peter Holce said the vehicle and its trailer belonging to Bill Bailey, who holds a licence in the name of Baileys Isotonic Logistics, were both given immediate prohibitions during the check.
On the unit the brake sensing valve linkage was broken, none of the direction indicators were working, the offside stop lamp was inoperative and the nearside one was missing as the wheelarch was missing. A mudflap was absent, there was no tyre on one wheel and a defective tyre on another, and there was an engine oil leak. He also found that he trailer had loose wheelnuts on two wheels, the direction indicators were inoperative and there was excessive travel on the nearside sec ond axle brake actuator.
Bailey said he had been carrying an extremely urgent load when he had a blowout on the nearside lift axle which took away the mudguard and the lights with it.
All the defects related to that incident, he maintained, He said the trailer was hired from the people he carried for.
Taking no action other than to issue a formal warning. Levin said the vehicle should not have been on the road in that condition but he was prepared to accept that it was a "one-off" incident. He directed that there be a further maintenance investigation by the VI in six months' time.