Driver to blame for spilt beer
Page 19
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• Distribution giant Tibbett and Britten has escaped with an absolute discharge after admitting using a vehicle with an insecure load.
Warrington magistrates heard that a pallet of beer fell off the truck and landed on a grass verge beside a roundabout. For the company, John Backhouse said that the curtainsider was being driven by an agency driver, who had been shown how to secure the curtains but he had not made the inside straps or the back door safe. The company believed he had taken the roundabout too fast.
Tibbett and Britten's fleet engineer Malcolm Holland said that there was nothing wrong with the vehicle when it was examined after the incident.
Backhouse argued that if a firm were morally guiltless of an absolute offence, and had not been negligent, it should be given an absolute discharge.
The driver had been given instructions which he had failed to carry out. Magistrates ordered the company to pay 220.