Wheel loss discharge
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• Moms Haulage and one of its drivers were given absolute discharges by Harrogate magistrates on a charge of using a vehicle with dangerous parts, following a wheel loss incident.
The magistrates were told that the rear nearside wheels of a 7.5-tonne box van driven by Terence Fowler had come off on the Al on 2 April, causing him to lose control.
Fowler said the van was not his usual vehicle. He had picked it up on the previous Friday, when he checked that the wheelnuts were tight with his fingers. He checked round the vehicle again on Sunday before setting off for Jarrow, where he parked up overnight.
The following morning he again checked the vehicle visually and everything seemed all right. He made a number of deliveries before setting off on the return journey. After he had been travelling for about 45 minutes he felt a vibration in the steering wheel. The axle dropped down and he lost control. When he got out the wheels had disappeared.
Colin Brown, the company's fitter, said there had been very little damage to the wheelstuds and the holes were only slightly elongated. He concluded that the wheelnuts had not been loose for long. They were right-hand-thread wheelnuts and would wind off once they became loose. The wheelnuts had been torqued up to 2701bft (360Nm) on 21 February, and when the vehicle was inspected again on 21 March they were still torqued up to the same figure.
Producing reports from Commercial Motor of similar cases, John Backhouse said they had followed the High Court ruling given in the case of Hart vs Bex, where it was said that an absolute discharge was appropriate in cases of absolute liability if the defendant was morally blameless and had not been negligent.
In the present case, neither the company nor the driver knew that the wheels were likely to come off. It was another in a series of cases of unexplained wheel detachment.