Youth mini-bus driver is fined
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• An under-age driver who crashed a mini-bus full of Youth Training Scheme workers has been fined £75 for careless driving, but his boss has been Oven a conditional discharge.
Coach operator R J Cook of Cumbria, who owns Brownriggs of Egremont, was discharged for 12 months and ordered to pay 15 prosecution costs after denying using a vehicle without insurance. He admitted using it when not authorised on his PSV operators licence, using it with the front off-side tyre over-inflated and employed an unlicensed driver to drive a NV.
Driver Julian Swan, 19, admitted careless driving. He was given an absolute discharge for driving under-age and without insurance, but was also ordered to pay £15 costs.
For the prosecution, Michael Caine said Swan had been lag a 10-seat mini-bus, can a group of YTS workers or regular run, when he had [4 control on a bend and the cle had ended up in a field. Fortunately, the passenger had only received minor in juries. The tyre on the offfront wheel had had a pres of 2.9 bar, while the manul turer's recommendation wz 1.6 bar.
For Cook, John Backhou said he had held a licence f 22 vehicles and operated a number of mini-buses on k services. The mini-bus con cerned had previously beet used as a public service ve cle. That use had ceased, wrongly believing that it w not be regarded as a public service vehicle if fewer du nine passengers were cam He had not realised that th criterion was the number c seats, and not the number passengers. All Cook had needed to do to make the eration legal was to have r moved one of the five doul seats in the vehicle.
Backhouse said it was ti firm's practice to train you drivers between 18 and 21 years old on non-PSV mini work in that way, until the passed the PSV driving te: enabling them to drive PSI mini-buses.