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Runaway artic wrecks car
Page 18
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A Liverpool haulage company was fined £500 with £50 costs after an antic careered out of control in a North Wales village and ended up in a garden after colliding with a car. When Bootle-based D O'Brien appeared before Flintshire magistrates it pleaded guilty to using a vehicle with defective brakes.
The court heard that the car driver was left unconscious for two hours and was severely injured by the impact.
Rhian Edwards, prosecuting, said that the accident happened on 13 November 2001. The Foden 40-tonne artic was being driven towards a T-junction when the driver realised that the brakes were not working and he could not stop the vehicle. It hit the car that was travelling along the main road and came to rest in the garden of a nearby house.
A police vehicle examiner found that the accident was caused because a yellow service brake line was not coupled properly, effectively disabling the brakes.
John Quinn, appearing for the company, said that it was established in 1964 and had an extremely good safety record. The vehicle had been examined and everything was found to have been properly maintained and adjusted. The remainder of the braking systei was effective, he added. it had not bee established how the air Fine came to be dh connected and it was impossible to see ho. it could have happened "without a huma being involved in it".
The vehicle had been properly service some weeks before, had been used withal any problem since then, and on the day the accident the brakes had worked pei fectly until the accident occurred.
Safety was of paramount importance t the company and it had never had any prat lems before, despite the fact that its fleet ( 36 tractors covered some 4,000,000km year. The accident had already cost th company some £20,000 in the loss of th tractor unit, which was written off, and th costs incurred in the accident, he added.
The case against the driver, Paul Barr Wilson of Great Sutton, was adjourned afte he pleaded not guilty by letter.