Screen flags fail the test
Page 10
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• k haulage boss has protested to Derbyshire police after the driver of one of his four trucks received a prohibition notice for displaying decorative flags on his windscreen.
Derek Claridge. who runs Cambridgeshire-based Jeic0 Transport with his wife Judy,
says he lost more than £200 in work because the vehicle had to go through a 136 annual test immediately following the prohibition. You are also looking at about half a day's wages on top of that," he adds.
The Claridges are particularly incensed because the dri
ver, Kelvyn Rayner, has such a good record. "He looks after the lorry better than If it was his own; you could not wish for anyone more meticulous," says Judy Claridge, who points out that the flags were not mentioned during two previous annual tests.
Rayner was stopped by police outside Longcliffe Quarries near Ashbourne and was told that the flags impaired his view.
He says the European flags are three inches high and in three-foot strips. One was about a foot from the base of the windscreen and the other six inches from the top.
Rayner was also told to remove a Donald Duck toy from the centre of his windscreen. A spokeswoman for Derbyshire police says a third of the central part of the windscreen was filled with stickers, and this was felt to be a serious road safety problem.
"The officer gave the driver a £20 fine and a delayed prohibition notice." she says. "Anyone who feels wrongly done by can go to court."