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LETTER OF THE WEEK
Page 20
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In my opinion, Denby's justification for his LHV will not wash in a court of law
FOLLOWING DICK DENBY'S attempt to clarify the law that surrounds vehicle lengths with a trial of its Eco-Link trailer on UK roads without a permit, here are further guidelines concerning the legality of towing two trailers with an articulated tractor unit.
Denby is correct in saying that Regulation 83 of the Construction and Use Regulations permits a heavy motor car to tow two trailers if one of them is a towing implement.
I did expect Denby to have read the definition of a towing implement and to have ruled it out as not applying to this two-trailer combination before using it as authority for exceeding the permitted length limit.
Towing implements are defined in Regulation 3 of the Construction and Use Regulations as "a device on wheels designed for the purpose of enabling a motor vehicle to draw another vehicle by the attachment of that device to that other vehicle in such a manner that part of that other vehicle is secured to, and either rests on or is suspended from the device and some hut not all of the wheels on which that vehicle normally runs are raised off the ground': It is the last part of this definition which kills Denby's argument.
To successfully claim in court that the first trailer is a 'device' would be difficult enough, but to prove some of the wheels of the second trailer, on which it normally runs, are off the ground would be impossible.
The provision that relates to towing implements was introduced many years ago to enable broken-down or crashed vehicles to be moved with either their front or back wheels resting on a low-height trailer where