The evidence of neglect
Page 19
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
The Transport Tribunal's judgment, reported in this issue, on an appeal by Selby Morton and Sons Ltd, of Northumberland, is a clear warning that the delayed prohibition notice is not to be treated lightly. Indeed, no more lightly than an immediate prohibition.
Traditionally, the delayed prohibition has been regarded as less serious than the immediate because, under the terms of Section 184 of the Road Traffic Act 1960, delayed prohibitions were not issued for defects which might involve -immediate risk to public safety". The Tribunal has now drawn attention, in a way which cannot be ignored by the authorities, to the common sense fact that while an immediate prohibition may relate to a single vital defect, delayed prohibitions — and especially a succession of them — may well indicate longerterm vehicle neglect. The Tribunal does not disagree with the Northern LA's suggestion that an immediate prohibition might be "sheer bad luck, something that may have happened in the previous 10 minutes".
To take such a view is not to devalue the immediate prohibition, which remains a serious matter, but rather to put the delayed notice on to an altogether higher footing — one of the -main planks in demonstrating failure to live up to the stated intentions concerning maintenance which are made by all operators when they apply for an 0 licence.
An operator who notches up a record of delayed prohibitions can hardly complain if this is taken as evidence of inadequate maintenance and/or inspection. In the case reported this week, the Tribunal regarded the defects listed in the delayed prohibitions alone as "massive evidence" of maintenance failure. But there is another side to the coin. If such notices are to carry so much weight in deciding an operator's future, the industry is entitled to ask for even greater care by examiners in isSuing notices. It would be quite unreasonable for an operator's licence to be put at risk for a series of trivial faults.