Flying Dutchman had no rest for 25 hours
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• A Dutch truck drivcr who was stopped in a roadside check had been on the road for 25 hours without a break. He was among 20 drivers ordered to rest by police officers taking part in Operation Mermaid, a multi-agency check on the condition of trucks from the Continent and driver fatigue.
The checkpoint, on the M6 at Doxey, near Stafford, was manned by the Staffordshire Police Traffic Intelligence Unit and the Metropolitan Police European Liaison Unit. A Staffordshire Police spokesman says 54 vehicles were stopped from 10 European countries. Thirteen had problems ranging from mechanical defects to overloading.
The checks were carried out after growing concern that some lorries from Europe were overloaded, not as safe as they should be and that drivers were at the wheel longer than they should be," he adds. "Our fears were proved right."