French cops demand £000 for tie
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• by Ian Wylie Yet another British haulier has oeen left baffled and angered by the actions of French police. A driver employed by MB Haulage of Flitwick, Beds was heading home from Switzerland with a hazardous load last Thursday when he was stopped just 45 minutes from Calais for speed ing. Having inspected the truck the police drew the driver's attention to the fire extinguisher, and in particular to the copper tie used to prevent the pin from coming out accidentally.
This tie, the police officers told the driver, should not be made of copper; it should be made of plastic. They then demanded £800 on top of the £1,000 fine he had already incurred for speeding.
"We had all our fire extinguishers serviced just a fortnight ago and our supplier assures us that he was unaware of such a regulation," says Barbara Bottoms of MB Haulage. "It just seems to us like another excuse for the French police to pick on British drivers."
The fine has baffled the Freight Transport Association too. Chris MacRae, the FTA's policy manager for dangerous goods, confirms that there is nothing in the ADR regulations which specifies materials for fire extinguisher components.
Fire extinguisher manufacturers are also mystified. Chubb supplies its extinguishers with plastic seals but says it is unaware of any regulation pro
hibiting the use of copper, However, spokesman Alec Saxon reports that French police have picked fault with British-installed extinguishers before: "A couple of years ago the French fined a driver because the label on his extinguisher only confirmed the date on which it was last serviced. As a result, we now issue labels which also show the date on which the next service is due."
MB Haulage is taking legal advice on the practicality of challenging the fine.