Tyres hirers responsible
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• The Scottish Justiciary Appeal Court has ruled that vehicle hirers are responsible in law for the condition of tyres at the point of hiring and over the course of the hire time, in an appeal heard last week in Edinburgh when a travel hire firm appealed against a £10 fine in April 1968 at Cupar, Fife. In this case the hirer hired for four days and the vehicle had done between 450 and 600 miles when the examiners tested and found one tyre to be below the statutory standard.
The hire firm was charged with "causing and permitting" use of the vehicle in that condition.
The court rejected an appeal against the fine and conviction but allowed the "causing" to be deleted. In maintaining the conviction, the court ruled that the garage manager employed "wilful blindness" in allowing the hire to proceed. He admitted that he had not checked the depth of tread when hiring out the vehicle and did not know the statutory minimum depth. He claimed that the tyre appeared to be in good order and nowhere near the danger level. The important point was that the tyre, at the point of hire, was in such a condition that, even if not defective, it would in all probability become defective during the course of the hire, the court decided in refusing the appeal.