Durt Cases Over Use of Defective Vehicles
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1R court cases last week illuminate official attention that is being o the use of mechanically deicechicles, and the attitude taken by diciary on questions arising from in a widow sued British Road es at Leeds Assizes for damages met of the death of her husband. y driver. Mr. Justice Parker dis the claim.
husband, Alfred James Seaby, had been driving a vehicle with 5 tons of springs when an it occurred at Ormskirk. In a int to the police, he had stated e steering began to wobble and
■ nt of the lorry collided with a Landa rd, Justice Parker did not accept the accident was due to any iical defect there was any neglion the part of British Road ;.
Recorder at West Brotnwich
• Sessions upheld an appeal by Warrington, manager, Sheffield ) group of B,R.S.., against a conand fine of £15 by the local ttes on March 23 for allowing his drivers to use a lorry with it brakes.
ie appellant. Mr. M. A. B. Kingn, Q.C., stated that the convic tion was outweighed by the evidence and was bad in law, It was stated that on January 3, a heavy lorry driven by a man named Kinsell smashed through the level crossing gates at Swan Village, West Bromwich. A Ministry of Transport examiner stated that the handbrake lever linkages were badly worn. The vehicle took 70 ft. to pull up from 20 m.p.h. using the foot brake.
Warrington said that his job was administrative, whilst maintenance was the responsibility of the group maintenance superintendent. Mr. KingHamilton submitted that there wat no evidence to suggest that Warrington knew that the brakes were defective or that he should have known.
Recorder "Not Satisfied" The Recorder said: "1 am not satisfied that he [Mr. Warrington] was in a position to forbid or permit the use of the vehicle and it follows that 1 am not satisfied that he was guilty of permitting the use of it."
" If people are too busy to keep their vehicles in a safe and proper condition they must take them off the road," said the Wolverhampton magistrate when Francis Edward Walton, aged 55, and his son, Peter Michael Walton, aged 21, both of Biakeford Lane, Stafford, were fined a total of £45 after pleading guilty
to charges relating to the condition of their lorry used in connection with their scrap-metal business.
The son said that he had been too busy to attend to the vehicle defects. which were said to include inefficient brakes, steering gear, speedometer and horn, and tyres in bad condition, There were also charges relating to failing lc keep records and driving with obscure index markings.
The magistrate said: " Offences like this are becoming more and more common and more and more serious. and the time is coming when if the Court is going to deal properly with these cases it must impose very serious penal t ies."
Fines totalling £35 were imposed by Kettering magistrates upon Joseph Chambers, haulage contractor, of Haydn Road, Nottingham, for offences concerning a lorry which, the chairman said, was "in a disgraceful condition" and should never have been on the road.
Chambers pleaded guilty by letter tc causing the vehicle to be on the road with the horn not working, the speedometer out of action, braking and steering not in proper order, propeller-shaft bolts missing, and an insecure gear lever. He said that the driver had not reported., the defects.