Tyre Fire : Judgment
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• .Against B.T.C.
JUDGMENT for Herbert Morris, Ltd., Loughborough, against the British Transport Commission for loss
and damage of goods was given by Judge G. W. Wrangham at Lough
borough County Court last week. He awarded £122 13s. 5d. and costs as the result of an articulated vehicle, travelling from Leicester to Dunstable, catching fire near Newport Pagnall.
In court, the driver said that before leaving Leicester and again at Market Harborough, he tested the tyres by kicking them. A few miles from Newport Pagnall he felt a drag on the semi-trailer and stopped to find that the rear outer tyre on the near side was deflated and the wheel was red hot.
The tyre caught fire and the driver used the fire extinguisher and soil from the roadside, but he could not extinguish the blaze. He uncoupled the semi-trailer and drove to Newport
Pagnall for the fire brigade. Meantime, the trailer had burst into flames.
The defence was that a puncture had caused the fire and did not amount to negligence. For Herbert Morris, Ltd,, it was claimed that to test tyres by kicking them was inadequate and that the driver should have had a pressure gauge. Thl Judge held that there was no lack of • foresight by the Commission, but they had not exercised reasonable care. They should have provided better fire protection, as there was a real risk that vehicles would catch fire.