Parliament Settles That Moscrop Business
Page 36
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Three-ton Weight Limit Will Inc-Aide Az-ties
FROM OUR PARLIAMENTARY CORRESPONDENT
LIEAVY motorcars are legally those I which weigh more than 3 tons unladen, as defined by Section 253(2Xh) of the 1960 Road Traffic Act. A tractive unit and semi-trailer, when coupled together, are two vehicles. These two facts will become law when the Road Traffic Bill receives the Royal Assent and will clearly define the law on these matters. As the result of a Divisional Court decision some months ago in the case of Moscrop, there has been considerable confusion over the unladen weight of a vehicle which can be driven by a driver under 21 years of age. In effect, the court decision was that an under-2I driver of an articulated unit, the tractive unit of which weighed more than 24tons, was guilty of an offence. Since then, as reported in The Commercial Motor of June 22, operators in some areas have been receiving summonses based on the 24 tons figure upon which the Moscrop decision was based. In Committee Stage of the Road Traffic Bill, the Commons have accepted (on the advice of the Government) an amendment by Mr. R. Gresham Cooke (Cons., Twickenham) which said that a motor vehicle and trailer, when articulated together, were two vehicles. Last October a Divisional Court case seemed to count them as one vehicle, and the object of the clause was to put back the law as it stood before this case, explained Mr. Cooke.
The decision of the Court had caused confusion on other matters, he went on, and he hoped Mr. John Hay (Parliamen
tary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport) would state the definition of a heavy motorcar, as laid down in the 1960 Act.There appeared to be some misapprehension whether a vehicle weighing over 2+ Ions but not in excess of 3 tons, and constructed to carry goods, was a motorcar as defined by Section 253 of the Act, and not a heavy motorcar. Mr. Hay advised the Committee to accept the Clause, the purpose of which was to declare the law as it had always been understood, and to put the matter beyond a peradventure. Broadly speaking, he said, goods vehicles were classified under Section 253 of the Road Traffic Act. 1960, as either "heavy motorcars" or as " motorcars."
The distinction was that a goods vehicle was a motorcar if it did not weigh more than 3 tons unladen. It followed, therefore, that a vehicle was a heavy motorcar if its unladen weight exceeded 3 tons. This applied to rigid vehicles, and, by virtue of the decision of the Divisional Court, it could he said now to apply to articulated vehicles.
If the new Clause became part of the law, the position would be that if the tractor portion of the articulated vehicle weighed less than 3 tons unladen it would be a motorcar, and not a heavy motorcar. This also led to the conclusion that the drawing unit plus the trailer might legally be driven by a person under 21.
(OTHER PARLIAMENTARY NEWS, PAGE SOS)