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Wheel loss hits Elddis by John Lelean • Elddis Transport

9th April 1998, Page 11
9th April 1998
Page 11
Page 11, 9th April 1998 — Wheel loss hits Elddis by John Lelean • Elddis Transport
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(Consett), one of the country's largest food carriers with a fleet of 106 artics, has been fined £500 after it admitted using a vehicle in a dangerous condition.

Crown prosecutor Jane Winteringham told Wetherby magistrates that last October police saw a Seddon Atkinson artic on the southbound carriageway of the Al at Aberford, West Yorkshire with twin wheels missing from the tractor's back axle.

Despite an intensive search back along the Al, only the inner wheel of the assembly could be found. That wheel, according to a police accident investigator, was heavily corroded.

In mitigation for Elddis, Ian Shuttleworth asked magistrates to view the incident as an example of the "lost wheel syndrome" Shuttleworth said the driver had checked all the wheels before setting off from the Consett depot, using the method recommended by the DOT. He had only covered 330km when the accident happened.

The six-weekly check on all vehicles in the fleet had been completed on this vehicle 14 days before, after which it had been driven a further 6,760km.

Shuttleworth said this was the first time the firm had appeared in court for a lost wheel offence, and it was morally blameless. He asked the magistrates to follow the decision reached by other courts in similar cases by issuing an absolute discharge. But the magistrates rejected this argument.


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