Limiter wires were severed
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A father and soh who were appearing at their second disciplinary inquiry within eight months had their 0-licence suspended for four weeks by Welsh Traffic Commissioner David Dixon.
The TC was considering action against Edwin and Malcolm Houston, trading as EE Houston & Sons, of Mold, together with an application for a fresh onevehicle 0-licence by Malcolm Houston. Last December the falsification of tachograph records led to one of their vehicles being suspended for four weeks; Edwin Houston's HGV licence was suspended for two weeks (CM20-26 January).
Traffic examiner Geoffrey Whitley said that in April a three-aided tipper driven by Malcolm Houston was stopped in a roadside check. A vehicle examiner found that three wires had been joined together and then cut, disabling the speed limiter.
When further tachograph records for that vehicle were obtained from the frm they showed that between October 1999 and April 2000 the maximum permitted speed had been exceeded on a regular basis. Edwin Houston was subsequently fined .£320 by the Wrexham magistrates and Malcolm Houston was fined £.200 for using a vehicle with an inoperative speed limiter (CM15-21June).
Vehicle examiner David Collings agreed that there was no evidence that the speed limiter wiring had been interfered with by the Houstons; he added that the operation of the speed linter should have been checked during the vehicle's maintenance inspections.
For the Houstons, Tim Culpin said that they had been ignorant of the unauthorised wiring modifications. He maintained that the wires had parted due to corrosion and pointed out that when the vehicle was sent in for repair it was returned with an unauthorised connection and had to be sent back to the calibration centre, Edwin Houston had now retired and his vehicle had been sold, Culpin added. Malcolm had only been an employee of his father and was not a partner in the business. He contended that the Houstons had been unaware that the speed limiter was defective as the limiter had tended to overrun occasionally. In future, his firm would be checking Malcolm Houston's tacho graph charts and if there appeared to be problem with the limiter it would be drawn to his attention.
The TC suspended the existing licence, but said that he would grant a licence to Malcolm Houston on the surrender of the existing licence when the suspension expired. The TC pointed out that the failure to spot the defective speed limiter was the kind of error that an experienced operator should not make.
He also suspended Malcolm Houston's HGV driving licence for one week.