'Emergency brake' plea not accepted
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A DEFENCE suggestion that a lorry driver might have only feared, in an emergency, that his brakes were not working was put forward at Kirkby Stephen (East Cumbria) Magistrates Court last week when Golightly Group Transport Ltd, Garmondsway, West Carnforth. pleaded not guilty to using a lorry with the braking system not efficient and properly adjusted, and were fined £20 with £36.68 costs.
Their driver, Leslie Thornton, (30), Davis Terrace, Barnard Castle, who pleaded guilty to driving the lorry in that condition, was fined £10.
Thornton gave evidence that he was driving a 5-ton lorry laden with stone down a one in 10 hill at Ravenstonedale to Heysham when he realized the brakes were not holding. They went "solid" and he had to run off the road, colliding with a furniture lorry before running into a field.