Straw bales were not secure
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• Appeals by Goole-based Northern Straw Co and one of its drivers against fines imposed after bales of straw had fallen from a vehicle on to the northbound carriageway of the M6 Motorway have been dismissed at Carlisle Crown Court.
The company was fined £1,000 by Kendal magistrates after admitting using a vehicle with an insecure load. Driver Paul Clark was fined £150 and they were each ordered to pay £25 costs.
The court was told that a police officer found 11 bales of straw on the northbound carriageway at around 17:00hrs on 13 December. He removed the bales and travelled north. He found a vehicle loaded with straw on a slip mad and the driver adjusting the load. Clark told the officer that he had checked and resecured the load at the
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Southwaite Service Area, about two to three miles from where the bales were discovered.
Maintaining that fines were an inappropriate penalty, Nigel Poole, for both the company and driver, argued that no moral blame could be attached to either.
Clark had been employed carrying loads of that type for some years. The company moved about 40 such loads a day and no accident of this kind had happened before. The bales of straw had been loaded and roped in a manner common in the industry.
There were exceptionally strong cross winds on that section of the motorway at the time. It had been a freak accident.
The case of Hart vs Bex had established that an absolute discharge was appropriate if the court was satisfied no moral blame could be attached to the defendants.
Producing Commercial Motor reports of cases where that prin
ciple had been applied, Poole said it was difficult to see what more the company could have done.
Recorder Bruce MacMillan said that the load had clearly been insecurely fastened as the bales had come off.
Poole said that the question was whether any moral blame attached to the company and dri ver when they had taken reasonable precautions.
Judge MacMillan said that if reasonable precautions had been taken the bales would not have come off. Poole said the company had operated a system that had proved to be safe over the years.
Judge MacMillan ordered the company and Clark to pay the appeal costs.