Fines clampdown on loading of trucks

Press, 2 September 1986, Page 8

Fines clampdown on loading of trucks

Drivers of insecurely loaded heavy vehicles will be liable to fines up to $2OOO as traffic officers move to enforce new legislation on loading. Since the legislation was passed in February this year, the Ministry of Transport has been lenient on all but the worst offenders, said Christchurch’s Chief Traffic Officer, Mr Ray Hall.

Instead it had focused on educating the industry and drivers about the new legislation and the code of practice it encapsulated.

The introductory lenient phase had finished at the week-end, said Mr Hall. Now all drivers with insecure loads would be liable. The new code set out effective ways of securing a wide variety of loads on heavy vehicles. Its intention was to prevent accidents, and it would eventually replace the stillexistent traffic regulations, he said. The problem with those regulations was that the Ministry often had to wait for a load to fall off a vehicle

before it could take action.

The new legislation was prompted by the petition of a young Wellington schoolgirl concerned about a school friend who had been seriously injured by a metal drum which fell off the back of a truck.

Mr Hall said that the drum was allegedly just sitting on the tray of a flat-deck truck and fell off when the truck rounded a comer, the drum hitting the girl who was on the footpath.