Concrete lump fell off skip
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• An absolute discharge has been given to a Reading skip hire operator after he admitted using a vehicle with an insecure load.
Maidenhead Magistrates Court heard that a lump of concrete fell from a skip on a vehicle belonging to Alan Hadley as it was being driven along the M4 and five vehicles collided with it.
Defending, Chris Butterfield said the skip had been collected from Maidenhead and was being taken to Reading. Driver David Podberrv had checked the load to make sure that it had not moved after driving over some speed humps in Maidenhead.
Once he joined the M4, the motorway regulations were in force and he could not stop except in an emergency Podberry had been forced to brake suddenly when a car cut in front of him and that could have caused the load to move, said Butterfield. When the police examined the vehicle after the incident they found nothing wrong and they allowed it to carry on.
Butterfield argued that the company had done all that could reasonably be expected of it to ensure that such incidents did not occur and he produced various safety manuals that were issued to staff.
Butterfield accepted this was an absolute liability offence to which a guilty plea was inevitable. But he pointed out that the High Court had ruled that where there was no moral blame and the defendant had not been negligent, an absolute discharge was appropriate.
The magistrates ordered the company to pay £30 costs and fined Podberry I:75 on a similar charge, also with £30 costs.