Case Report: Driving an overweight vehicle, Aberdeen Sheriff & JP Court
October 19, 2018 News
Mr D, a representative of our client F Ltd, recently appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court after the company where charged with permitting an employee to drive a work’s vehicle which was significantly overweight contrary to Section 41B of the Road Traffic Act 1988 and the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986.
The road traffic offence brought against our client came as a result of the actions of it’s employees. Following the completion of a project in Aberdeen our client expressly instructed a team of it’s employees to dismantle scaffolding materials and transport them to another location over the course of two days. The decision to dismantle and transport the materials over two days was taken by our client due to the volume and weight of the materials involved but regrettably the employees decided to dismantle and transport the materials in one day. This meant that when the road traffic police stopped the work’s vehicle and subsequently took it to a weigh bridge it was discovered that the vehicle was significantly overweight.
The driver of the vehicle was of course charged with driving an overweight vehicle but our client was charged with permitting him to drive as he was driving during the course of his employment.
Our client is a Glasgow based business providing scaffolding materials for projects all over Scotland and has had an impeccable health and safety record over it’s 12 years in business. So when Mr D from F ltd came to our Glasgow office for a free initial consultation with our specialist road traffic lawyer he was keen to emphasise that protecting the business’ reputation was paramount.
Mr D explained that although he did not dispute that the driver of the vehicle was driving in the course of his employment with F Ltd, he had provided express instruction regarding the transportation of materials. His instructions had been completely ignored by his employees and he confirmed that no employee would ever be permitted to drive a vehicle whilst it was overweight whilst under F Ltd’s employment.
Having received legal advice from our specialist road traffic lawyer, Robert Sheridan, our client pled not guilty. Our road traffic lawyer then worked closely with our client to collate, review and identify relevant training records, health and safety records, employee records as well as various other documents which would help demonstrate to the Procurator Fiscal and the Court that our client ran a tight ship so far as health and safety was concerned and that the decision to drive taken by the employee went against the instructions and training provided to employees and was done without the permission of our client.
Also, although the employees involved no longer worked with F Ltd our specialist road traffic lawyer was able to trace and cite them and call them as witnesses to assist our client’s defence.
The case proceeded to the trial diet at Aberdeen Sheriff and Justice of the Peace Court. However, in advance of the trial diet our road traffic lawyer provided the crown with a copy of all the evidence that had been prepared for the trial diet and prior to the trial starting the Procurator Fiscal decided to accept our client’s plea of not guilty having had the opportunity to consider the very strong case our specialist road traffic lawyer had put together.
Needless to say Mr D was delighted to have preserved his company’s impeccable reputation for health and safety and confirmed that he would recommend us to anyone facing a road traffic charge.
If you need advice or representation for any road traffic offence ensure you get specialist assistance, contact us now on 0141 465 3333
