French drivers nabbed
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• A French lorry driver was ordered to pay fines and costs of £400, when he appeared before the Daventry Magistrates following a motorway crash the previous day.
Edouard Havet, of Allee Albert, Comns, Lievin, Pas de Calais, admitted driving without due care and attention, exceeding 10 hours' driving in a day and failing to take sufficient daily rest.
Bill Wheeldon, prosecuting, said that at 18:00hrs on 17 July a Rover car was being driven in heavy traffic along the MI motorway in the centre lane. The car was overtaking a line of slower moving heavy goods vehicles. It started to overtake Havet's artic. However, when it got level with the cab the right-hand indicator started flashing and the vehicle pulled out into the side of the Rover, causing it to spin on to the grass verge and overturn.
When Havet's tachograph charts were examined, it was seen that in the 24 hours and 21 minutes he had been in the UK, he had been driving for 15 hours 16 minutes. Though his rest totalled eight hours 55 minutes, the longest period of consecutive rest had been four hours 46 minutes. For Havet, it was said that his lorry had left-hand drive and when the car pulled level with the cab it was in a blind spot. Havel had been concerned about his load of fresh pears, having been considerably delayed by roadworks and traffic jams.
Havet was fined £325, with 275 costs.
El A second French driver, Jean-Michel Lefaucheur, blamed his efforts to read a map for his vehicle wandering over the motorway, when he appeared before the magistrates.
Lefaucheur, of Rue Paul Willai, Nivelle, admitted reckless driving, exceeding 10 hours' driving in a day, and driving for more than 41/2 hours without the required break.
Wheeldon said that police had seen Lefaucheur's Renault artic, being driven at approximately 70mph (112kmih), wandering from the first lane on to the hard shoulder and back again. It subsequently moved to the second lane to overtake another vehicle and wandered across the third lane for about 100 yards, before going back to the first lane, causing several drivers to brake or take evasive action to avoid a collision. The vehicle was stopped at the next junction and Lefaucheur arrested. An examination of his tachograph charts revealed that he had been driving for 10 hours 15 minutes and that he had driven for seven hours 30 minutes with only a 15-minute break.
After Lefaucheur had indicated his vehicle had wandered because he was looking at a map, Wheeldon said that the prosecution case was that driving a heavy goods vehicle on a motorway at 70mph (112km/h) while looking at a map was reckless.
For Lefaucheur, it was said he had not realised that he was in the third lane and motorways in France only had two lanes. He had to keep to his schedule or get sacked. Though the tachograph rules were the same in France, he was able to take less rest as they were not so strictly enforced.
Lefaucheur was fined £260 with £30 costs.