Fines for rear axle overloading
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• P. J. Ayres and Sons Ltd. was fined four guineas, with two guineas costs, at Watford magistrates' court on Tuesday. The company pleaded guilty to allowing the weight transmitted to the road via the rear axle, on two vehicles, to exceed the legal maximum of nine tons.
The court was told that the first vehicle was stopped and weighed at a MoT check on A412 at Maples Cross on January 21 1969 at 9.30 a.m. and the second vehicle seven minutes later: both were carrying sacks of fertilizer, spread evenly along the vehicle, from the ICI works at Avonmouth.
In court it was claimed that the vehicles were weighed on the ICI weighbridge before starting their journey and the gross vehicle weights were well within the legal limits. Two weighbridge tickets were produced as evidence.
P. J. Ayres blamed the vehicle design as the cause of the offence and said that the only way it could be overcome in the future was by leaving an empty space at the rear of the vehicle, thus reducing the rear axle weight.
Also at Warlord on Tuesday, William Allen (Bolton) Ltd., was fined £10 with £17 3s costs for exceeding the legally permitted g,v.w. and allowing more than the permitted maximum weight to be transmitted to the road via the rear axle.