Dutch driver fined £300
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• A Dutch driver who drove through red traffic lights with his flower lorry at 3.17am last Tuesday came before Sheffield Stipendiary Magistrate, Mr Ian Crompton, a few hours later and was said to have started his journey at 9am the previous day.
Ilenrick Paling 23, pleaded guilty to ignoring a traffic signal, failing to take a full rest period ending at 9am the previous day, exceeding the maximum eight hours period of driving and failing to take a weekly rest period of 24 consecutive hours during a seven day period. He was fined a total of g..300.
The magistrate told him: "You are a professional driver and you know the rules. You are driving a very large vehicle. If you have an acci dent it is very nasty. The matter is serious."
Mr Philip Chadwick, prosecuting, said the articulated vehicle was followed along Penistone Road, Sheffield, in the direction of the city centre by a police car and at the junction with Rutland Road the traffic lights changed to red when he was about 5 yards away. Instead of stopping he continued past the red lights without altering his speed.
He was stopped and questioned and said in good English "I thought 1 was going too fast to stop. I thought I could get through on orange but I didn't make it." It was found he had been driving for almost 181/2 hours instead of the legal maximum of eight hours when stopped by the police. A vehicle examiner was called and the tachograph offences were found to have been committed.
These were against the EEC regulations as Paling knew. He was asked about the offences revealed by the tachograph and replied: "Flowers have to be delivered on time while they are fresh."
Paling had nothing to say in court about the offences. He said he had been a driver for five years and came to this country three times a week. He had no money with which to pay a fine. The officer who stopped the vehicle told the court he had spoken to the firm's agent at Harwich by telephone and had been told that any fine would be paid forthwith. The defendant would be held by the police until this was done.