Falling timber was packaging
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• Bristol-based Kings Heavy
AAHaulage and one of the company's drivers were cleared of using a vehicle with an insecure load after Coleford magistrates accepted that wood said to have fallen from the vehicle was part of the packaging rather than the load itself.
The company and driver Kevin Payne had denied causing danger or nuisance by the load or any part of it falling from the vehicle, contrary to Regulation 100(2) of the Construction & Use Regulations.
Evidence was given by a motorist that as she drove down the A38 a piece of wood had detached itself from the vehicle and had damaged her car. Payne said there had been no wood of any sort on the vehicle.
Defending, Jonathan Lawton argued that if a piece of timber had come off the vehicle, the evidence was that it was part of the packing of the load. Consequently, the prosecution had been brought under the wrong regulation.