Short suspension and licence is cut
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• A Wakefield civil engineering company which had a vehicle involved in a serious accident last September has had its operating licence suspended for two days and had its licence authorisation has been cut.
West Yorkshire Police accident investigator John Green said that he examined a tipper and drawbar trailer belonging to T Mullen (Morley) which had been involved in the accident at Brighouse. lie maintained that a seized variable brake valve on the tipper would have resulted in the brakes locking prematurely, leading to a jack-knife.
Green added that the tachograph was disconnected and did not indicate any speed to the driver. He found no operable braking system on the trailer and he considered that the brake defects contributed to the accident.
DOT vehicle examiner Mark Millard told North Eastern Deputy Traffic Commissioner Mark Hinchliffe that following this incident he made a maintenance investigation, examining three vehicles and issuing two immediate prohibitions, both of which related to wheel security.
The prohibited vehicles had been in use the day before, said Millard, and since 1992 nine immediate prohibitions had been issued to the company's vehicles.
Director Thomas Mullen said that the trailer had been parked up in the yard for some time and had been taken out in error. The vehicle had been inspected 20 days before the accident and the fitter believed that the valve could have seized in a matter of days.
Cutting the authorisation from nine vehicles to four, and suspending the licence, Hinchliffe commented that if he had not been satisfied that there had been significant improvements in the company's maintenance system he would have taken much more severe action.