Transporter Summonses Dismissed
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QUMMONSES brought by Lancashire police .alleging that Progressive Deliveries Ltd. of Coventry had operated a car transporter and drawbar trailer in excess of the permitted length were dismissed by Lancaster Magistrates on Wednesday.
The Justices were told by Inspector A. W. Hyde that after being stopped by a police constable on M6 motorway at Carnforth the vehicles were measured. The body of the Leyland-Carrimore rigid, including the hinged extensions, measured 35 ft. 4 in.—which was 5 ft. 4 in. longer than the length permitted in the regulations. The trailer was found to be 3 ft. 3 in. in excess of the length allowed. Both vehicle and trailer were fully loaded with cars at the time, the load being supported to some extent by the hinged extensions.
Mr. E. S. Temple, for Progressive, said that the prosecution was the first of its type and it was a matter of vital importance to the car transporter industry.
There was, he submitted, a distinction between " construction " and "use" in the regulations. The principle that a vehicle's permitted length might be extehded by the use of hinged flaps had been accepted by the motor trade as long ago as 1951, and there was judicial authority for this.
There was a distinction, he continued, between this case and Baron v. Viporul. The flaps were not permanent fixtures and did not permanently affect the length of the vehicle. Mr. Temple said that the Minister of Transport bad, in fact, expressly recognized the need to cater for special appliances and apparatus fitted to vehicles and had issued an amendment in connection with wide or long loads. If it was right that these vehicles were too long then there was no reason why the Minister should not make appropriate regulations to limit them, he added. "It is not a question of whether there was a re-construction of the vehicle —I say that the fitting of the hinged extension was not a re-construction ", said Mr. Temple.