Fewston Transport's director was banned
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by Mike Jewell • A director of Skipton-based Fewston Transport, one of whose vehicles was involved in an accident at Sowerby Bridge in which six people died, was banned in 1989 from being a director of the company, it has been revealed.
A failure to notify the LA of Tony Eyers' involvement in the company was given as one of the reasons why North Eastern Licensing Authority Keith Waterworth called Fewston to a public inquiry.
Eyers said at the hearing that when the company was first granted a licence he said he would take no part in the business, after his previous company, Wharfdale Traction, was convicted in May and November 1988 for permitting drivers' hours offences.
Fewston was run by his wife and father in law but Eyers became a director in 1991, after being advised that a condition on the original licence preventing him from being a director was not on a renewed licence. Eyers said he thought that the LA was informed of his directorship in Fewston: he accepted that no trace could be found of his notification.
Waterworth cut the number of the vehicles on the company's licence to the minimum Fewston said was necessary for its survival: down from 37 vehi cies and 15 trailers to 30 vehicles and six trailers.
The LA was also reacting to allegations of Fewston drivers' speeding offences.
Evidence was given that Fewston's system for checking tacho charts was geared to identifying driver's hours offences rather than speeding.
This system has since been revised. The LA was also acting against what he called "deficiencies" in the firm's maintenance system.
Waterworth said he was not considering any evidence connected with the Sowerby Bridge accident, but he said that the future of the company would be reviewed in the coming months.