Truck driver banned and told to ‘grow up’
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Michael Constantine received an extended ban from professional driving after kicking a car driver in the face
By Roger Brown
BEVERLEY BELL, traffic commissioner (TC) for the North West (pictured), has given a truck driver who kicked a car driver in the face an extended ban from professional driving and told him to “grow up” during a driver conduct hearing in October.
During a court case in February, Tameside Magistrates’ Court was told that Michael Constantine, 27, from Glossop, had been driving for his father’s company in December 2011 when he drove into the front driver’s side of a BMW carrying two adult passengers and a 10-month-old baby, knocking off the wing mirror and scratching the side of the vehicle.
Constantine drove off and the car driver pursued him. When he caught up with him and went to confront Constantine, the lorry driver kicked him in the face – an act District Judge Taaffe described as “appalling”. Constantine denied failing to stop after an accident and assault but was found guilty. For the assault, he was sentenced to four months in prison, suspended for a year, and ordered to do 180 hours of unpaid work over 12 months. For failing to stop after a road accident he received one month in prison to run concurrently, also suspended for 12 months.
He was also banned from driving for 12 months and his licence was endorsed. He was ordered to pay £200 compensation to the victims and £300 court costs.
Newspaper reports of the incident were submitted to the TC during the driver conduct hearing.
She had called Constantine to a hearing in June after receiving notification of the prosecution at Tameside Magistrates’ Court, but adjourned that hearing to make further enquiries with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). At a reconvened inquiry last month, after receiving documents from the CPS, the TC heard evidence from Constantine about the incident and his history as a truck driver.
The TC noted that Constantine had a number of offences recorded against him in the past 10 years, including exceeding the speed limit in a lorry in 2009.
Summing up, Bell said that Constantine’s conduct had fallen below the standard expected, and ordered that his vocational driving licence entitlement cannot be restored until 15 October 2013, at the earliest.
She added: “What concerns me is your approach to a member of the public who opened your cab door. Whether or not that individual should have opened the door is another matter. What matters is the way you responded.
“It is my job to regulate the CV industry and I can’t possibly tolerate drivers who kick members of the public in the face when they engage with them. What you did was disgraceful and I don’t expect commercial drivers – I don’t expect any driver – to do it.
“I would have made a direction for 24 months but I have balanced my decision against your relative immaturity. It’s about time you grew up and started behaving like a proper commercial goods vehicle driver.” Constantine will have to reapply for his professional driving licence if he wishes to work again as a lorry driver.
‘Disgraceful’ acts
The TC described Constantine’s actions as “disgraceful” and told him he should start behaving like a proper commercial goods vehicle driver.