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Don Vale denies charges
Page 22
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• [)on Vale Transport of Old Denaby near Doncaster has been ordered to pay WIll) in fines and costs following an incident in which a nine-tonne hydraulic press fell from one of its vehicles.
The company had denied using a vehicle and trailer with dangerous parts.
Gary Hodgson, for the company, told Rotherham Magistrates that it had been a case of an insecure load. The move ment of the machine put unusual pressure on the trailer cross-members: it was this rather than their condition, that caused them to collapse.
Consultant engineer Ivan Ratcliffe said the main chassis members were the main load bearers. The cross-members extended only 16in (400mm) on either side of the main beams and individually bore an extremely small proportion of the load. His view was that the cross-members had not been bearing any of the weight in this case until the machine toppled over.
Even a brand new trailer would have exhibited the same sort of damage in such circumstances, said Ratcliffe. If the cross-members had been in an appalling state he would have expected to have seen the ones on the other side pulled upwards by the chain before it broke. He did not believe that the trailer could have caused danger. The magistrates fined the company £500 with £100 costs.