Low-loader not low enough: driver fined 120
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• Saying that it would have been proper to have checked the height of his load and that anyone carrying exceptional loads would be well advised to check the proposed route with the police or highway authority, Thetford magistrates fined a Bury St Edmunds lowloader driver £20 last week.
The driver, Mr D. Aitkens, denied transporting a load on a trailer which was unsuited to the use and, which the prosecution alleged, was dangerous.
The court was told that the load, a JCB excavator, had been collected from a site on Al 1 and was being taken to Bury St Edmunds. On the route was a recently installed pedestrian footbridge over the road, it was 17ft 5in. high but the load had hit it in the span causing considerable damage to the structure. The centre span was cracked and buckled beyond repair and the total damage amounted to £2500.
Mr Aitkens said that he had been driving behind a boxvan and did not have very good visibility forward. He knew the road well but did not know of the new bridge. "The first thing I know about it," he said. "was the impact."