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The High Court has ruled that a mobile elevator towed
Page 25
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by a vehicle under 3.5 tonnes should be regarded as a trailer, and its weight must therefore be taken into account when assessing "maximum permissible weight".
The ruling was made when the court dismissed appeals by Stefan Devenish, a partner in Industrade of Manchester, and driver Colin Pritchard against their conviction by the Wigan Magistrates for using a vehicle without a tachograph. Both men were given absolute discharges by the magistrates, but Devenish was ordered to pay i'2013 costs.
The offence arose in May 2002 when Pritchard was driving a Nissan Cabstar pickup, with a plated weight of 3.400kg, which was towing a single axle mobile elevator with an unladen weight of 950kg.
For the defendants, Tim Nesbitt argued that the elevator should not be regarded as a trailer, referring to an FTA publication which states; "In the past, there were differing views about whether non-goods carrying trailers, such as generators and compressors, should be taken into account when cal culating maximum gross weights. DTLR advice is that only trailers with goods carrying capacity should be counted. This reflects the FTA's long-held view, but has not been tested in the courts."
In reply, Lisa Boocock for the CPS maintained that a trailer was anything "trailed" behind a vehicle.
Dismissing the appeals, Justice McCombe said that it seemed clear that the legislation was directed at providing maximum driving periods for heavy vehicles, including relatively light vehicles which exceeded certain weights when a `trailer' was added.
There was no definifion of 'trailer' in the Road Traffic Act, but McCombe agreed with Boocock that a trailer is defined as something that is trailed behind another relevant vehicle. There could surely be no difference in the concept between a goods-carrying trailer and a piece of heavy equipment towed behind a vehicle.