Death smash driver on road for 12 hours
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• A lorry driver who died in a head-on smash on the A69 might have survived if he had been wearing a seat-belt, an inquest has heard.
Thomas Allan Ca!land was speeding and had been driving for nearly 12 hours—two hours longer than the law allows— when his Sarnia collided with an MAN artic at Low Row last October. The road was closed for five hours and the MAN driver, Steven Tate of Hattwhistle, employed by Oliver W Martin Transport of Barden Mill, suffered serious head and leg injuries. Tate was in intensive care for four days and cannot remember the accident. Recording a verdict of accidental death, North East Cumbria coroner Ian Morton said: We must draw some lessons from the long hours that Mr Ca!land had driven and the high mileage he had done on that day."
PC Colin Freed, an accident investigator with Cumbria police, told the court that the tachograph on Calland's truck had been tampered with. "The only logical reason for doing that is to show that the vehicle was stationary when in fact it was being driven," he said. "Up to the time of the accident he had driven for 11 hours 51 minutes. That is one hour 51 min
utes in excess of the maximum 10 hours he can drive."
Freed added that Calland had driven nearly 600 miles that day and his lorry was doing its limited top speed of 56mph on a road where the HGV speed limit is 40mph.
"He wasn't wearing a seat belt," said Frood. If he had been wearing one he wouldn't have been thrown out of the cab—almost certainly."
Calland, who lived in Durham, worked for Youngs Haulage of Esh Winning, County Durham. He was unmarried. The firm was not represented at the inquest and declined to comment afterwards.