Wheel-loss discharge
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• A Carlisle haulage firm and one of its former drivers left court with an absolute discharge after magistrates heard that they were the latest victims of the "lorry wheels mystery".
Lorry firm boss Geoffrey Bell and heavy goods driver John Goddard were not to blame for an incident on the M5 motorway when a trailer wheel came off and smashed into a car, the court in Stroud, Gloucestershire, decided.
Research was under way into the "alarming" phenomenon of lorry wheels becoming detached from axles for no apparent reason, magis trates were told.
Haulage firm proprietor Bell, 39, of Rosehill Industrial Estate, Carlisle and his former driver Goddard, 35, of Greystone Road, Carlisle, admitted operating a dangerous lorry on the M5 in Gloucestershire on 17 February.
Gary Hodgson, defending, argued successfully that they were "really guiltless" and should not have their licences endorsed. The court heard that Goddard had safely driven the articulated truck more than 320 km from Carlisle when the trailer's nearside rear wheels came adrift.
They hit a Ford Sierra caus lag a fire which gutted the car, said Bridget Shaw, prosecuting, but the driver had time to stop and was unhurt.
Inspection of the trailer later revealed that one wheel stud was missing and the remaining studs were stripped of thread. Goddard told the court he had carried out his routine visual checks on the wheels before and during the journey — and they were all in order. He had no idea the wheels had some off until he stopped at some motorway services, he said.
"I heard a bump but the road surface was a big rough anyway and I thought nothing of it," said Goddard. "I was very surprised when I saw that the wheels were missing."
Bell said he operated a rigorous programme of preventive maintenance on his lorry fleet and drivers were also instructed to carry out their own regular safety checks. The trailer in question had been inspected by a qualified fitter only a few days earlier, he said.
Consultant engineer Ivan Ratcliffe said the latest statistics on wheel stud failures were "appalling". Research was under way to try to solve the problem, he said. It had recently led to Devon's entire ambulance fleet being taken off the road.
"It really is an alarming state of affairs, and the problem has not yet been solved," said Ratcliffe. "I suspect the answer will eventually be in better design and quality control."