KNOW T AW
Page 74
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by Les OLdridge, T.Eng(CEI), MIMI, AM IRTE
Powers of police and vehicle examiners
IN THE LAST ARTICLE I discussed the police powers of arrest for traffic offences and the powers of various officials to conduct examinations of vehicles under Sections 53 and 56 of the Road Traffic Act 1972.
Regulation 137 of the Motor Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1973 gives additional powers to those already described.
Any police constable in uniform and vehicle examiners and certifying officers may, with the consent of the owner of the premises, test and inspect the brakes, silencers, steering gear, tyres, lighting equipment and reflectors of any motor vehicle or trailer on the premises.
If the testing of the vehicle is carried out within 48 hours of the vehicle being involved in a reportable accident, the examination can be carried out without notice to the vehicle's owners. In other cases, a notice must be given to the owner 48 hours before the time of the proposed test or sent to him, by recorded delivery, 72 hours before the time of the test.
It will be remembered that Section 56 of the Road Traffic Act 1972 gives power to examiners to enter premises at any reasonable time to examine goods vehicles. The C and U Regulation applies to all types of vehicles and it could be used by the police to inspect a private motor car, particularly one which had been involved in an accident where there is an allegation that the cause of the accident is .a mechanical defect, eg defective brakes, on the vehicle to be examined.
The requirement to give notice of the test to the owner when there has not been an accident does not, of course, apply if the owner gives his permission for an earlier inspection.
Section 60 makes it an offence to sell unroadworthy vehicles. In order to enforce this very sensible provision, Section 61 gives powers to vehicle examiners and the police, at any reasonable time, to enter premises where used vehicles are sold to test and inspect any used vehicles found there.
So much for the quite considerable powers of the authorities to test vehicles and, in some cases, to enter premises to do so. Now to look at the law whereby motor vehicles and trailers may be weighed.
Section 160 of the Road Traffic Act 1972 gives power to vehicle examiners, specially authorised weights and measures inspectors and police constables, to require a motor vehicle or trailer to be weighed and to instruct the person in charge of it to travel to a weighbridge for this to be done.
There is a maximum fine of £400 for refusing to allow a vehicle to be weighed. But there is no power to require a person to unload so that the vehicle can be weighed unladen.
If, at the time, the vehicle is required to be weighed it is more than a mile from the weighbridge and the weight is found to be within the legal limit, the owner can claim for the loss involved in making the journey to the weighbridge. If the parties cannot agree as to the amount that should be paid, the amount may he determined by a single arbitrator agreed to by both parties, or in default of agreement by an arbitrator appointed by the Secretary of State. When the vehicle is weighed, the driver must be given a certificate of weight and this certificate exempts the vehicle from being weighed again on the same journey.
Where a goods vehicle is found to be exceeding the C and U weight limits and because of its excessive weight there is an immediate risk to public safety, an authorised examiner can issue a GV 160 prohibiting the use of the vehicle until it has been off-loaded to the required limits.
Policemen, and to a lesser extent vehicle examiners have powers to demand the production of the many types of driving documents. Starting with the ordinary driving licence a police officer may demand the production of a driving licence by any person (a) driving a motor vehicle on a road: (b) who he has reasonable cause to believe to have been the driverot a vehicle at a time when it was involved in an accident or when an offence was committed; (c) who is supervising a learner driver.
The licence must be "produced for examination so as to enable the constable to ascertain the name and address of the holder of the licence, the date of issue and the authority by whom it was issued." Arguments arise as to whether the officer is allowed to see any endorsements which may be on the licence. Some drivers even claim that the licence need not be handed to the officer but only held in the driver's hand so that the policeman can copy the relevant details. There is nothing in the section which allows him to copy details of endorsements but my own view is that the licence cannot be "examined" — and that is what the law requires — unless it can t handled by the policeman. A far as I am aware, there are n stated cases which make th point clear, although in Trerne) ing v Martin (1971) RTR 196 was held that the production the licence must be for reasonable time so as to enab. the constable to ascertain th details I have listed above.
In certain circumstances, policeman when requesting th production of a driving licenc can also demand the driver date of birth. He can do th when the licence is not produi ed at that time; when the licenc produced has been issued by local authority; when he hE reason to suspect that th licence was not granted to th person producing it; was gran ed to that person in error or hE been altered.
If the licence cannot L produced on demand, it must L produced at a specified polic station within five days. It mu: be produced in person.
The law is very similar i respect of the production of a hgv driver's licence, except till a vehicle examiner can deman the production of this licenci and if it cannot be produced the time, the driver has 10 da) in which to produce it at th office of the examiner c Licensing Authority. If th production is demanded by policeman, the time limit is fk, days as fbr the ordinary licence Certificates of insurance an test certificates have to L produced on demand and, if th is not possible, they, too, can t produced at a specified polic station within five days; but i this case, they need not t produced in person.
A Department of Transpo certifying officer, or a uniforme police officer, can inspec driver's records of hours worke and any book or register and an other document which th officer may reasonably requir to inspect to ascertain that th provisions of the Act have bee complied with. The term "an other document" is a very wid one and could, presumably,b held to mean the inspection of wages book to find out if a drive was being paid for more how than were shown on his record!