Letter to mine.
Dear Mr Hammond,
You may have read about the tragic death of Catriona Patel. Catriona was killed by a truck owned by Thames Materials of Hanwell (http;//www.thamesmaterials.com) which turned left across her. The driver had been drinking, and he was on his mobile phone when he ran over Catriona. He has just started a seven year jail sentence.
This appalling incident need not have happened. Thames Materials employed Dennis Putz despite his appalling record. He had twice been jailed for driving offences. He’d been caught driving while disqualified sixteen times. Either Thames Materials didn’t check, or they didn’t care.
I ask that you consider pressing for three courses of action.
1 That the CPS prosecute Thames Materials. There is a requirement, as part of the Operator's Licence, for a company to run its commercial vehicle fleet in a safe and legal manner. This should surely include an inspection of all drivers' licences on a regular basis to check that they are correctly licensed to drive the right class of HGV, their licence haven't been suspended or expired, the licences are not forged, the driver's medical is up to date and that they haven't collected any undeclared points since the last inspection. Clearly Thames Materials did not run its fleet in a safe and legal manner.
2 That the HSE should investigate, and prosecute where appropriate, ALL road traffic incidents involving a commercial vehicle which results in a fatality.
3 I understand that many waste disposal companies operate a driver remuneration scheme whereby drivers receive additional pay per load delivered. Such a policy is clearly at odds with the basic principles of road safety and I believe such schemes should be made illegal for all commercial vehicle operators.
Yours sincerely,
I had a reply in January (only just got round to transcribing it).
He had written to someone in the Justice department, who had in turn forwarded it to the Department for Transport. His letter enclosed a copy of the letter to him from the Minister responsible for roads in the DfT. It included this paragraph.
Thames Materials Ltd, whose vehicle was involved in the death of Catriona Patel, are currently authorised to operate 31 goods vehicles and 4 trailers under a standard national operator’s licence. VOSA (Vehicle and Operator Services Agency) are currently investigating the matter insofar as the Traffic Commissioners’ jurisdiction extends, and upon completion of the investigations, all the information will be passed to the commissioner for their consideration.
If nothing else, the matter has at least been brought to the attention of a number of people.
