Driver should have noticed faulty brakes
Page 23
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Liverpool haulier Piksli James Kirkby, .1 trading as J Kirkby & Son, was ordered to pay £690 in fines and costs after being convicted of using a vehicle with dangerous brakes.
Vehicle examiner Robert Stewart told the Leyland magistrates that he had examined the vehicle concerned, an ERF tractor, at the request of the police, lie had found excessive travel on the front offside brake actuator pushrod, resulting in a total loss of brake effort at that wheel.
The locking sleeve was in the off position, and that had allowed the adjuster to back off. He felt the driver should have been alerted to the fault by the fact that the vehicle was pulling to one side.
In reply to Kirkby, who denied the charge, Stewart agreed that he had not checked the brakes on a rolling road. The vehicle had been jacked up, and he had checked the braking effect with someone operating the footbrake.
He disagreed that the brakes would have worked if weight had been placed on the road wheel. He also disagreed that the sleeve could have worked itself into the off position between inspections, saying that it must have been left off the last time the brakes were attended to by a mechanic.
Questioned by the magistrates, Stewart said that, in his view, the vehicle was in a very dangerous condition, as there would have been a strong puffing effect on the steering wheel if the brakes were applied hard.
Kirkby said the vehicle was inspected every six to eight weeks, and the brakes were always adjusted. Conceding that his inspection records did not show any particular work on the brakes, Kirkby said that was because it was routine. It was the first time there had ever been a brake defect an one of his vehicles and he had been in the business for 50 years.
In reply to John Heaton,
prosecuting for the Vehicle Inspectorate, Kirkby disagreed that the brakes were dangerous, saying that this was a twin-steer vehicle, and with an articulated outfit it was the
trailer that did most of the braking.
The magistrates fined Kirkby £600 with £90 costs; the driver, Graham Fogg, was fined £70 with £30 costs.