Pandoro fined for trailer fault
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• P&O Group subsidiary Pandoro has been fined £1,000 by Avon North magistrates after body cross members on one of its semi-trailers fractured and bent when it was driven over a trench in the road.
Both Pandoro and the driver of the vehicle, William Lockhart, admitted using a vehicle with dangerous parts. Lockhart was given an absolute discharge.
He said he heard a bang as he drove over the trench and stopped to see what damage had been caused.
Pandoro's engineering manager said that it operated 2,300 semi-trailers — 105 were the same as the one which fractured. Trailers were inspected every three months and the trailer concerned had last been inspected two months previously. The defect would only be noticeable on a principle inspection. Following this incident the other trailers of this type had been examined and body members on two of them were found to have begun cracking at the same point.
The problem had been solved by using angle brackets to spread the load.