German trailer foxed driver
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• A driver who could not understand the German instruction printed on the air-brake valve of a foreign container trailer was found guilty on one charge of using an articulated vehicle and trailer with an inefficient braking system and one charge of overloading when he appeared before a court at Market Weighton, East Riding, last week.
The magistrates heard that in August of last year the driver, Mr Kenneth Agnew, of Aire Street, Middlesbrough, had been instructed to collect a trailer from Hull Docks. On reaching Market Weighton the trailer ran out of control down a hill injuring six people and damaging 13 vehicles.
Mr Agnew, who denied the offences, was found guilty on both charges and fined £20 and £5 respectively.
His employer, Smith of Maddiston Ltd, of Sterlingshire, was fined £200 for the first offence and £25 for the second and ordered to pay £25 costs after admitting the use of a vehicle which was overladen. The employer admitted using a vehicle when the braking system was inefficient and not properly adjusted.
Mr Agnew told the court when he had been assigned to collect the trailer he had not been told where it had come from. When he came to couple it to his tractive unit he found he could not understand the instructions which were in German. He added that the braking system had acted normally until he had reached Market Weighton.
Mr Paul Rust, a vehicle examiner, said the airline pipes on Continental trailers were not to the same colour code as those on British trailers and tractive units. An examination had proved that the braking system could not have been in working order when the trailer left Hull. The valve handle was in the wrong position and the airline pipe wrongly coupled.