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Probably the driver . What happened to that dustcart driver who blacked out at the wheel a year or so ago. He hadn't disclosed his medical issues.
 
Dork is following this case very closely.

How might the H&SE helped in this, or any other vehicle related scenario?

Dork hopes that the jury will come good & at least clear the driver & the fitter.

IMO, VOSA might actually be the real culprits here. They most certainly will not come out of this smelling of roses !
 
Is Dork now writing in the 3rd person? Do we know what was wrong with the brakes and would the accident not have happened if the ABS was working?
 
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DaveHerns said:
Is Dork now writing in the 3rd person? Do we know what was wrong with the brakes and would the accident not have happened if the ABS was working?
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We may never know the whole truth of why the brakes failed. A LOT of smoke is being blown surrounding the condition & inspection routine of the lorry pre-incident. Even more smoke is being blown around the immediate post incident inspection.

ABS fails to safe. If VOSA claim that it did not on this occasion then that will open a huge can of worms. VOSA's own guidelines state that an ABS light lit is not a major fault & the lorry can continue it's journey.

I don't know why the brakes failed. Dork occasionally drives a race support truck & the owner/operator has extensive LGV fitting experience including trucks of this make & generation, pre-trial his best guess was the brakes cammed over but now he's ruled that out.

We need to know exactly why the brakes failed, it will go a long way towards this never happening again. So far the prosecution & VOSA specifically are blowing a lot of smoke to secure a conviction. This is a trial of the people involved, it is not an inquest into why or how the brakes failed.

If you are able to see through the smoke, only the operator & VOSA are coming out badly so far. Sadly, VOSA aren't actually on trial.

We feel that it is significant that the other (6 IIRC) trucks of this operator passed a thorough inspection the following day.
 
Haven't got time to read all the details but the driver seems to have been speeding . I'll wait to read the outcome in due course
 
DaveHerns said:
What happened to that dustcart driver who blacked out at the wheel a year or so ago. He hadn't disclosed his medical issues
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As for this case?
1/. No prosecution by DVLA?
2/. No prosecution by H&Safety?
3/. No prosecution by Police Scotland?

We have just passed the Anniversary of this event.

Some of the relatives of the affected Families last week brought what is called a request to the "Crown" in Scotland to bring a so called [under Scottish Law] a "Private Prosecution" ?

The Legal appeal to allow some of the affected families to proceed with th so called private prosecution failed, the legal plea was denied.

As an aside the Gentleman, who occasioned this disaster was eventually banned from Driving a HGV and a motor car, unfortunate, this person did get behind the wheel again but was apprehended and formally charged with some sort of offence, but that was I think driving whilst banned or similar.

Ken.
 
Many years ago I worked on wagons, the brakes were normally multi-operated, with often up to four air tanks, the idea was if one failed the other would work, but to test one had to build up air and empty each tank independently. There was nothing in the MOT as it was then to test this, so one line failed could mean no brakes. The spring brake was a huge step forward, however even they had problems.

My garage did not have a rolling road, so it was down to the skill of the mechanic to set spring brakes so there was an even pull on each side. The wagon MOT did measure the brake operation, but simple service did not.

There were cases where brakes failed, and when it went to court it was found there was a gross lack of testing of the wagon, I remember one where air over hydraulic brakes failed, there was a possibility that salt or other solvable matter had got into the hydraulic fluid, there was no chemical tests done, so know one knows if brakes failed or not.

As to ice in brake lines, how do you test for that?
 
I've followed this very closely from the very day it happened . . . not just because Mitzy is the spitting image of own dear grandchild.

As predicted the driver walks away with no guilt & no shame. IMO he should never have been in the dock.

The operator was guilty from the start. The mechanic, this one's debatable . . . there are lots n lots of truck fitters out there today running this scenario thru' their heads. IMO he'll win an appeal if anyone's interested in paying for it !

There are no winners here but I think that VOSA, the DVSA, or whatever it is they want to spend our £millions on rebranding themselves as must be breathing a sigh of relief.

They totally ****ed this one up & we still don't know what caused the brakes to fail.
 
Drove a 7 ton flatbed lorry (not mine) up to a junction once put my foot on the non existant brakes and no hand brake.
Ran backwards for about 1/2 mile picking up a lot of speed meeting cars in reverse then seen my chance and slammed it into a ditch where we hit a tree and lifted about 8 feet into the air.
Who was at fault?
 
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Know someone who sends his un licenced son to shift a 17 ton excavator on a low loader. Had a word with him once and said he doesn't bother chaining the machine on. didn't ask him why because already knew the answer. It takes up time!
So explained to him what can and will happen. But the lad knows best. Thinks that because its big and heavy it can't slide.
Spoke to his da and explained what was going on.
If the excavator slides off, crushes a car and kills people then who is too blame?
 
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I did a job for a lady called Mrs Palmer just before Christmas around 25 years ago. Her husband had driven down to Gloucester to see his dad who had been taken into hospital.
He had just left the motorway when a Lorry coming towards him on a bend shed its poorly strapped load, two 15 ton concrete blocks. One of those blocks landed on top of his car.

I still think about Mrs Palmer at Christmas.
 
That's all it takes. A bend in the road. Maybe a slight shunt if the inside wheel catches the verge or a kerb. Then off it goes.
 
Roger928 said:
Know someone who sends his un licenced son to shift a 17 ton excavator on a low loader. Had a word with him once and said he doesn't bother chaining the machine on. didn't ask him why because already knew the answer. It takes up time!
So explained to him what can and will happen. But the lad knows best. Thinks that because its big and heavy it can't slide.
Spoke to his da and explained what was going on.
If the excavator slides off, crushes a car and kills people then who is too blame?
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You are.

You know this is happening yet you do nothing about it.

Here's a picture of Mitzy :
Mitzy

Mitzy

  • Brigade77

Mitzy didn't do anything wrong, she never hurt no one. She didn't deserve this & she didn't deserve the likes of you.
 
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