LA: no action on Dukes
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• No action was taken against a licence held by Northern Ireland operators Dukes Transport (Craigavon) in the North Western Traffic Area following disciplinary proceedings before Deputy Licensing Authority Kenneth Birchall.
The DLA had considered taking action following a £1,000 fine for defective brakes (imposed after one of the company's vehicles was involved in an accident in which a child lost both legs) and a number of overloading convictions.
For Dukes, Jonathon Lawton said the accident occurred when the driver lost control of a Volvo tractive unit which mounted the pavement and hit a wall on which two small children were sitting. A vehicle examiner had given evidence that the brake defect should have been obvious to the driver because the actuators had been completely backed off — but a driver who had driven the vehicle the day before had said there was no problem.
The vehicle had been recovered by suspended tow, and as there was a break in the air system caused by the accident, the only way it could be moved was by backing off the actuators. Nonetheless the company was convicted.
Turning to the overloading offences, Lawton said that none of them related to North Western-based vehicles. In the majority of cases the company had consignment notes saying that the loads were legal, but the customers were not prosecuted. If the enforcement authorities prosecuted customers in such circumstances, overloading would virtually disappear overnight.
Transport manager Albert Marshall said that in every case the vehicles had been within their permitted train weights. The company was replacing its two-axle tractive units with tri-axle units which was solving the problem. The company operated 140 vehicles from depots in Northern Ire land, the Eastern area, the North West and the south of Scotland. Its vehicles were stopped frequently and the number of overloads represented a very small percentage of vehicles checked.
Taking no action, Birchell said a recent maintenance investigation had proved satisfactory and he was satisfied that Dukes were doing everything in its power to minimise overloading.