1-truck had brake fault
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• Cardiff-based Red Dragon Driving School has been fined £850 by the Pontypridd Magistrates for taking HGV learner drivers out for their HGV driving tests in vehicles with defective brakes and steering.
The company, of Cathedral Road, Cardiff, admitted one offence of using a vehicle in a dangerous condition; five of using vehicles and trailers with defective brakes; one of using a vehicle with defective steering; one of using a vehicle with a defective tyre; and three of using vehicles without plating certificates.
David Martyn, prosecuting, said the vehicles had been stopped by police near the
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HGV test centre at Pontypridd's Polo Grounds Industrial Estate. Norman LloydEdwards, defending, said that these were the first offences committed in the school's 20year history. A fitter had been employed to do routine jobs but the company had now entered a long-term contract for monthly maintenance checks on its vehicles and all its instructors had been told to carry out visual checks each day. The company had taken every step it could to rectify the situation.
The brakes on the vehicles had been deliberately slackened off by the fitter because unladen trailers weighed less, so that the learner drivers would be able to experience the difficulties of realistic braking with a full load, said Lloyd-Edwards.