Vaines vehicles put public at risk
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• North Eastern LA Frederick Whalley has cut the authorisation on Colin Vaines & Son's licence from 13 vehicles and five trailers, to seven vehicles and three trailers.
He also directed that the licence should expire at the end of December 1992. The LA took action because he felt that vehicles operated by the Barnsleybased firm had been a risk to the public.
Vehicle examiner Richard Firth told a Sheffield public inquiry that 12 vehicles were being operated but no inspection records had been kept since January 1990. A fitter had told him that inspections were only carried out when vehicles were in for repair.
Director Roy Vaines admitted that the company had no formal system. He said that if drivers found defects they reported them to either himself or the foreman fitter and all defects were rectified the same day.
The vehicles were inspected at monthly intervals with a schedule detailed on a wall chart. He had now given instructions that inspection sheets should be filled in on a Saturday from a book in which repairs were recorded. For the company, Mark Breislin said this was not a case of wilful neglect.
Whalley said the book only recorded repairs and not what had been inspected. The inspection sheets were false and hardly worth the paper they were written on. Vaines replied that he would insist that the fitters filled out inspection sheets as the inspection was carried out and he would introduce a proper driver defect reporting system.