Ii • North West
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Carriers of Rain ford, Merseyside and one of its drivers have been given an absolute discharge after admitting using a vehicle with dangerous parts after a lost wheels incident.
Runcorn magistrates were told that last February the nearside drive axle hub of a tractive unit driven by William Brownbill had broken up, shedding a double-wheel assembly on the M56 motorways.
The wheels crossed the central reservation and hit a car travelling the opposite way.
Brownbill said that he had personally checked the wheelnuts with a wheel brace on the morning of the accident. He then made a number of local runs before making a trip to Wrexham. The incident occurred on the return journey; there was no warning.
Director James Anders, a qualified engineer, gave evidence about the company's maintenance system. He said that the vehicle had been inspected six days before the accident and nothing was found to suggest that there was any fault.
The driver had not reported any defect on the vehicle. Anders said that because of the considerable publicity about wheel loss the company had bought a torque wrench. When wheels were removed for any reason wheelnuts were tightened to the manufacturer's recommendation with the torque wrench, and then checked again 240km later. Drivers were required to check wheelnuts as part of their daily check, and it was a dismissible offence not to do so, he said. Defending, John Backhouse argued that in the case of Hart vs Bex the High Court had indicated that if a defendant was morally guiltless of an offence of absolute liability, such as this, and had not been negligent, an absolute discharge was appropriate. He produced copies of Commercial Motor which included the wheel loss campaign and news stories highlighting where courts had granted absolute discharges for wheel loss offences.