Driver takes strap rap
Page 7
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• An HGV driver will appear before St Albans magistrates court next week because the strap system securing his load failed.
Under the Law he must plead guilty as there is no "due diligence" defence. The driver, who works out of Purfleet, Essex, says he checked the straps before and during the journey and could not have predicted that the spring holding the ratchet assembly in place would break.
He has been advised by his solicitors that there is "no alternative but to plead guilty to the offence, since the courts have in the past held that the offence was committed even if the driver did not know that something had occurred to make the load insecure." In other works, if the equipment fails, the driver is held responsible.
The driver is likely to be prosecuted under Regulation 100 of the Motor Vehicle Construction and Use section of the Road Traffic Act. Transport Lawyer Jonathan Lawton has told Commercial Motor that the driver should go for an absolute discharge although he is technically guilty under the Act. Any driver involved in such a case should get an engineer to verify that the equipment had failed despite proper usage, says Lawton.