Exhausted Hungarian lorry driver fined £600 after being stopped in Conwy

Jun 24 2010 by Hayley Saul, North Wales Weekly News

AN exhausted lorry driver who hadn’t had a proper break in 10 days was fined £600 after he was stopped by police.

The driver, who paid the fine on the spot, was also ordered not to drive for 45 hours after he was hauled over by officers from the commercial vehicle unit on Sunday evening on the A55 at Conwy.

An analysis of the digital recorded equipment provided shocking evidence of just how tired and dangerous on the road the driver was – Sergeant Ifan Jones said it was the worst case the unit had seen.

The Northern Irish registered articulated lorry was stopped as it travelled towards Holyhead Port laden with chilled foods.

He had driven 116 hours in a fortnight – the legal limit is 90 hours.

The Hungarian driver had also driven 69 hours in one week – the legal limit is 56 hours.

And he had driven 10 days without a break, well over the legal limit which is six consecutive days.

Sgt Jones pledged to continue to crack down hard on drivers and companies who flout the law, endangering lives on the road.

He said: “This is one of the worst cases the unit has encountered. The driver was extremely tired.

“We are applying a zero tolerance approach to tired drivers and their companies, who endanger themselves and other road users.”

By April this year 200 dangerous drivers and unsafe lorries had been hauled over in the clampdown by the new enforcement unit.

It was launched in January to allow police to work directly alongside Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (Vosa) examiners to pull over trucks, buses and taxis.

Last week it was revealed how rogue truckers were putting lives at risk on the A55 by using electromagnets to tamper with their tachographs – disabling their anti-lock brakes and speedometers.

Vosa found 11 lorries using the interrupter devices on North Wales’ roads in the first three months of the year.

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