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Read definition of towing trailers

11th February 2010
Page 20
Page 20, 11th February 2010 — Read definition of towing trailers
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

I NOTE THAT Dick Denby has responded to my letter (`The devil is in the detail'. CM 10 December 2009) about the legality of towing two trailers with an articulated tractor unit.

Mr Denby is correct in saying that Regulation 83 of the Construction and Use Regulations permits a heavy car to tow two trailers if one of them is a towing implement ('Understanding the small print', CM 7 January). But I

expected Mr Denby to have read the definition of a towing implement and to have ruled it out as not applying to his two-trailer combination before putting it forward as authority for exceeding the permitted length limit.

A towing implement is defined in Regulation 3 of the rules as "a device on wheels designed for the purpose of enabling a motor vehicle to draw another vehicle by the attachment of that device to that other vehicle in such a manner that part of that other vehicle is secured to and either rests on or is suspended from the device and some but not all of the wheels on which that other vehicle normally runs are raised off the ground".

It is mainly the last part of this definition that kills Mr Denby's argument. To successfully claim in court that the first trailer is a 'device' would be difficult enough, but to prove some of the wheels of the second trailer 'on which it normally runs are raised off the ground would be impossible.

The provision relating to towing implements was introduced years ago to enable broken-down or crashed vehicles to be moved with either front or back wheels resting on a low-height trailer in circumstances where it was not possible or practical for them to be given a suspended tow from the jib of a recovery vehicle.

James Duckworth Transport Law Services Woking, Surrey

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Locations: Surrey

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