High Court Ruling on Towing
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AFOUR-WHEELED vehicle which is being towed with two of its wheels suspended clear of the ground by a crane, is still a four-wheeled vehicle. This opinion was expressed by the Lord Chief Justice (Lord Goddard), in the King's Bench Divisional Coort, last week.
He dismissed an appeal against a decision of the justices at Market Harborough, who held that an offence was committed in using trade plates in towing lorries (the towing units were fitted with cranes from which the front wheels of the towed lorries were suspended) and that each driver should have been accompanied by an attendant. The magistrates convicted George Henry Walter Carey, director of Motor Vehicle Movements, Ltd., on four summonses; and Stanley Douglas Matthews and William Alfred Rees, the drivers of the two lorries concerned, on two summonses of aiding and abetting. All the defendants were discharged absolutely, but Mr. Carey was ordered to pay 21s. costs.
They appealed on the ground that the convictions could not be sustained in law.
It was stated that the towed lorries were being moved for the Ministry of Supply from one depot to another.
Lord Goddard, giving judgment, said it was dear from the regulations for what purpose trade plates were to be used.
Mr. Carey had been granted them in his business as a dealer, but when he was acting as a haulage contractor, as in the present case, that was not in the course a his dealer's business. The magistrates properly convicted.
Lord Goddard added that the case was a strikieg instance of the complicated provisions of the Road Traffic Act and the various regulations which puzzled lay magistrates. The attention of the Ministry of Transport might be drawn to the case, with a view to clarifying them.