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by Amanda Bradbury • The MP of a woman killed when her car was hit by a truck with faulty brakes, no tax or 0licence is backing renewed demands for impounding of illegal operators' trucks,
Matthew Taylor, MP for Truro and St Austell, has written to Transport Secretary John MacGregor to ask him to reconsider impounding of trucks. Taylor also wants tougher fines and for truck vendors to be made more strictly liable for the condition of vehicles at the point of sale.
At present dealers are required to sell goods of "merchantable quality" under the Sale of Goods Act: the Government is supporting a Labour-generated Private Members Bill to strengthen the Act for the consumer.
Taylor says that circumstances surrounding the death last March of his constituent, Anette Olsen-Hammond, proves that the Department of Transport is not doing enough to combat illegal operators.
Mrs Olsen-Hammond died when her stationary car was hit by a truck driven by Essex owner-driver Brian Daniels (CM 26 August-1 September). Last week Daniels was sentenced by Bodmin Magistrates Court to pay a £300 fine and 1833.32 back duty with three points on his licence.
Daniels admitted having defective brakes and running without an 0-licence or road tax as well as four tachograph offences for failing to keep records.
Chief Traffic Commissioner Ronald Ashford says that Daniels' fitness to hold a vocational licence is to be investigated. Ashford, a leading supporter of impounding, said next April's Traffic Areas Annual Report would produce the clearest evidence yet of the scale of illegal operations in the UK.
The additional statistics follow closer co-operation between Traffic Areas and a targeting of drivers' hours enforcement by the VI last year.