the orra loon
Member
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
Evening all
Stopped in January by police while I had my brothers trailer and a load of logs taking from the farm to home, approx 3 miles. I was stopped for insecure load. All the checks they did on insurance, trailer roadworthiness were good other than number plates not matching. I was polite with them and to be fair, they were fine. After a discussion they advised I couldn't continue without securing the load. My wife came with a thin type tarpaulin and 2 x ratchet straps to secure it which really was a half-arsed attempt at securing but they were happy as I had only 1 mile to go. Wish I had taken a picture of the tarp on!
Thought there was a good chance I wouldn't hear anything further. Anyway, today received "Conditional Offer of a Fixed Penalty" in the post from the Procurator Fiscal. I have been reported for an "alleged contravention of the Road Traffic Act 1988 Section 40A(d) on 29 January 2023 at XXXXX location you did use a motor vehicle when the weight, position or distribution of its load, or the manner in which said load was secured, was likely to cause danger of injury to any person there."
No mention of overloading trailer or the X3 not being rated to tow the load at the time. No mention of plates not matching either. So it's the insecure load the charge is for.
Now, I'm not denying the load wasn't covered and have learnt a lesson there but the bit that I don't think is true in the statement above is "or the manner in which said load was secured, was likely to cause danger of injury to any person there". Myself and my lad took a bit of time levelling the load and in my opinion I didn't think any logs would fall off under normal circumstances, trailer is well sprung etc. Certainly wasn't flying on either.
So fixed penalty of £100 and 3 points offered (if it was just the fine, I would have paid it before now but the points annoy me as have had a clean licence for 15+ years having only ever had 2 x 3 points for minor speeding many years ago).
Do I just pay up or worth a challenge? Anyone bothered fighting their case for something like this before...... is it worth it?
Cheers
Stopped in January by police while I had my brothers trailer and a load of logs taking from the farm to home, approx 3 miles. I was stopped for insecure load. All the checks they did on insurance, trailer roadworthiness were good other than number plates not matching. I was polite with them and to be fair, they were fine. After a discussion they advised I couldn't continue without securing the load. My wife came with a thin type tarpaulin and 2 x ratchet straps to secure it which really was a half-arsed attempt at securing but they were happy as I had only 1 mile to go. Wish I had taken a picture of the tarp on!
Thought there was a good chance I wouldn't hear anything further. Anyway, today received "Conditional Offer of a Fixed Penalty" in the post from the Procurator Fiscal. I have been reported for an "alleged contravention of the Road Traffic Act 1988 Section 40A(d) on 29 January 2023 at XXXXX location you did use a motor vehicle when the weight, position or distribution of its load, or the manner in which said load was secured, was likely to cause danger of injury to any person there."
No mention of overloading trailer or the X3 not being rated to tow the load at the time. No mention of plates not matching either. So it's the insecure load the charge is for.
Now, I'm not denying the load wasn't covered and have learnt a lesson there but the bit that I don't think is true in the statement above is "or the manner in which said load was secured, was likely to cause danger of injury to any person there". Myself and my lad took a bit of time levelling the load and in my opinion I didn't think any logs would fall off under normal circumstances, trailer is well sprung etc. Certainly wasn't flying on either.
So fixed penalty of £100 and 3 points offered (if it was just the fine, I would have paid it before now but the points annoy me as have had a clean licence for 15+ years having only ever had 2 x 3 points for minor speeding many years ago).
Do I just pay up or worth a challenge? Anyone bothered fighting their case for something like this before...... is it worth it?
Cheers
It looks like there is a 6 month window to notify which I think is pretty ridiculous, IMO such things should be dealt with within 14 days max. If they intended to issue a penalty why not do it on the spot? 
