Fine halved on appeal
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• Bristol Crown Court has heard an appeal from Pandoro, which had been fined £1,000 for using a vehicle with dangerous parts. Trailer chassis members on an artic had fractured when it went over a bump.
At the crown court John Backhouse, for Pandoro, said that the trailer had come from Ireland the day before and had then been trunked laden from Fleetwood to a transfer depot at Iron Acton, near Bristol. The driver who took over there had checked the trailer, but he was not qualified, or expected, to check the chassis members. After he had driven about 20km he went over a bump and cracks in the chassis members had opened up, allowing the trailer to subside on to its landing legs.
Fleet engineer William Clarke said that cracks had developed in both main chassis members at the point where the fifth wheel bearing plate joined the chassis. Out of the company's 2,500 semi-trailers, there were 105 of this type and when they were inspected following the in cident only three others were found to have signs of cracking at the same point on the frame.
In his opinion a coincidence of the join between the bearer plate and the cross-members, and bracing at the same point, had created a stress point, leading to unusual cracking. He had extended the bearer plates so that they no longer coincided and had had no further trouble.
Clarke admitted that the cracks were likely to have developed over two or three weeks and agreed that they would have probably been found if fitters who carried out checks on every trailer entering the Country through Fleetwood had been required to examine the chassis.
He said that chassis members were now examined during those checks, as well as during the three monthly preventative maintenance inspection.
Cutting the fine to £500 and directing that Pandoro's appeal costs be met out of public funds, Judge Hutton said that he accepted that the presence of rust on the cracking was not significant in view of the fact the trailers were travelling back and forth across the Irish Sea.