Lorry driver fined for overworking (From Maldon and Burnham Standard)

Lorry driver fined for overworking

7:30am Sunday 16th September 2012 in Local News

A HUNGARIAN lorry driver was forced to stop for two days and fined £400 after police discovered he had not rested for over a week.

The motorist had been pulled over by officers from Essex Police in Boreham, on September 4, during Operation Mermaid, which was carrying out spot checks on haulage vehicles’ tacho-graphs.

The equipment logs how long lorry drivers have been on the road for.

When he was pulled over, it was discovered the Hungarian transporting a load of battery chargers had not taken a break in nine days, in which time he had travelled over a large part of Europe.

This breached European Union laws which say commercial drivers must take at least a 45-hour break over long journeys.

The man’s lorry was clamped, with police telling him to take a rest for two days along with handing him the fine.

A spokesman for Essex Police said: “Police checks on the vehicle’s tachograph showed the driver had failed to take a compulsory two-day break during his journey.

“He was ordered to take a 45-hour break to comply with strict European-wide working regulations that were introduced to reduce the risk of drivers falling asleep at the wheel.”

During the operation, police officers stopped and checked 48 vehicles in and around Boreham on the same day.

Officers in cars and on motorbikes intercepted vehicles on the A12 before being taken to Boreham Services where they had their documents checked.

In total there were 57 driver hours offences picked up through the checks, with nine fixed penalty notices being issued.

Seven vehicles were also found to be overweight including one lorry carrying fruit and vegetables, which was over its capacity by 30 per cent.

Staff from the Department of Work and Pensions were checking for false benefit claims in the same operation.