Gunpowder truck had faulty brakes
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II A Belgian driver carrying 25 tons of gunpowder on the M42 in a lorry with defective brakes told police in halting English last week: "If anything go wrong, I run".
West Midlands police found the Belgian relying solely on emergency brakes because the normal system had failed. A drawbar trailer being towed behind had no brakes. The vehi cle, travelling near Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre, was issued with an immediate prohibition.
Chief Inspector John Burt, an area traffic commander with West Midlands police, says: "If there was a collision the gunpowder might not have exploded, but it would have burned furiously. It certainly isn't the sort of thing we wanted to see risked."
The check was part of Operation Mermaid, a nationwide clampdown on law-breaking 111.17s and their drivers. The operation stopped almost 6,000 vehicles and made 28 arrests. Immediate prohibitions were served on 401 trucks.