Bad luck for waste recycler
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What the defence claimed were two pieces of had luck" have led to the suspension of the one vehicle licence held by Llandysul waste recycling operator Roland Jones for a period of a week, at a Port Talbot disciplinary inquiry.
The Welsh Traffic Commissioner David Dixon was told that in February 2000 a skip lorry was stopped in a spot check. The skip was found to be in a dangerous condition, leaking a residue of rotten fruit through holes in the bottom. Also, the vehicle's handbrake was defective. Both Jones and the driver of the vehicle were subsequently prosecuted.
For Jones, Paul Carless said that the skip had been empty and should only have been used for the carriage of cardboard. However, an error had occurred at the customer's premises where it had been left. As far as the brake defect was concerned, the sealed brake unit had failed during the course of the journey. The same fault occurred, with the diaphragm blowing, when the vehicle was sent in for test.
Accepting that the vehicle had a hard life, Jones said that he was prepared to reduce the period between inspections from six to four weeks and have the brakes tested on a rolling road. The brake fault had been a sudden failure and could not have been foreseen by the driver.
Suspending the licence, the TC said that Jones should make foolproof arrangements for his skips to be kept in good order as it was not good enough to blame the customer. He was disappointed by the failure to report the convictions and by the company's failure to respond to TAO correspondence.