MY sympathy goes to the driver, but, there are thousands of drivers out everyday who drive tired, and thats with the blessing of ours and europes wonderful transport ministers. We ghave been complaining for a long time about the hours we are allowed to work, and along with the reduced rests, allows a driver to have 5/6 hrs sleep before working for another 15 hour day.
That does not mean that even if the hours were reduced, drivers would not break the law. There have been many posts about it on T/N and a lot of drivers moaned that if the hours were reduced, they would lose money, and i bet a pound to a shilling, there are a lot of drivers who would work over their hours if they could.
In my opinion, our hours are far too long, and lead to excessive tiredness, add to the fact that a driver on supermarket work, cannot get the odd half hour power nap that we used to get, because RDCs refuse to let drivers stay in their cab, also add to that the greedy employers who exploit us, and when you want a decent meal, say " But youve just been on a bay for 3 hrs", regardless of the fact that there are very few facilities. Then the Foreigners are under pressure too, to get tipped/reloaded, and back on the ferry, so when the government and Vosa take note, and maybe Brake who puts pressure on the government to reduce accidents, then we may get a reduction in hours, and stop drivers falling asleep at the wheel.
without knowing the facts, it’s pretty much irrelevant that he wrote off a truck a couple of weeks earlier
Silver_Surfer:
Yeah but if everyone did that winseer then society would collapse wouldn’t it?Now I appreciate some chaps make mistakes and take bankruptcy, fair enough but if you borrowed and spent it you really should try and pay it back.
exactly, what’s wrong with taking responsibility for your own actions and paying back money you’ve borrowed?
NiceRoadTrucker:
They couldn’t give a rats ■■■ who they ripped off going by the tax dodging. Stick’em on a boat with a hole in it.
I totally agree. Adding that the driver knew what he was doing. Debt is bad but risking the lives of others is far, far worse. He obviously had his motives, and must of seen some blind logic that this was ever going to work. Maybe the best thing to come out of this sorry mess is that its another bent operator out of business, and off the road.
stevieboy308:
without know the facts, it’s pretty much irrelevant that he wrote off a truck a couple of weeks earlierSilver_Surfer:
Yeah but if everyone did that winseer then society would collapse wouldn’t it?Now I appreciate some chaps make mistakes and take bankruptcy, fair enough but if you borrowed and spent it you really should try and pay it back.
exactly, what’s wrong with taking responsibility for your own actions and paying back money you’ve borrowed?
Debt is nothing more than a Ponzi scheme for shylocks who think they’ve got a God-given right to charge a thing called “interest” for what they perceive as very little risk on their part, because of this false concept of it being “against the law” not to pay - which isn’t true of course.
Lenders have got as much right to debt interest payable to them as staff have got of being given a job by their so-called “betters”. That “right to expect a debt to be repaid” ended therefore when the concept of “job for life” ended is what I’m saying here.
The world of inflation and ever-higher costs of living coupled with ever-decreasing wages was their creation - not ours. Debt should never be used to make up the gap - which is more often the case these days than any feckless spending on holidays and luxury items. I started preaching “default” as the only way out of debt at the same time full time jobs based on 36-40 hours dried up, nearly a decade ago.
I feel that if one doesn’t take a stand on this kind of stuff, the elders will put us in an early grave, and then proceed to ■■■■ on it afterwoulds to boot. 
Right on Mr Justice for dishing out some proper porridge in this case. 
look at it from the other point as well,admittedly he was trying to earn money to clear his debts,but because of the greed of the hauliers and maybe his selfishness his four children now have no father,even worse if they are still quite young knowing that their dad would not be coming home anymore,could not even begin to imagine how they feel,even now
northamptonchron.co.uk/news/ … -1-5235280
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What gets up my nose is that the judge said they deliberately ran their business in this way to maximise profit and with scant regard for their employee.
They aren’t the only ones but if this is the case, surely this would have to be murder? It was premeditated so they knew the consequences/outcome of any serious accident involving their employees?
Just an opinion but this is what makes a mockery of the law.
What gets up my nose is that the judge said they deliberately ran their business in this way to maximise profit and with scant regard for their employee.
They aren’t the only ones but if this is the case, surely this would have to be murder? It was premeditated so they knew the consequences/outcome of any serious accident involving their employees?
Just an opinion but this is what makes a mockery of the law.
but they didn’t deliberately set out to kill him, so it’s not murder.
stevieboy308:
What gets up my nose is that the judge said they deliberately ran their business in this way to maximise profit and with scant regard for their employee.
They aren’t the only ones but if this is the case, surely this would have to be murder? It was premeditated so they knew the consequences/outcome of any serious accident involving their employees?
Just an opinion but this is what makes a mockery of the law.
but they didn’t deliberately set out to kill him, so it’s not murder.
That’s why they didn’t get 25 years. They set about a practice they knew in advance could cause death and destruction by way of those practices increasing risk to life and limb of both the driver, and the public, but not themselves. It’s also possible in my cynical mind that the book was thrown at them because they’d evaded so much tax, so the full powers of the judiciary were brought to bear. You don’t get to hear of many bent yard’s bosses getting sent to jail for any reason after all. Personally, I think we should build more jails - LOTS more jails - and then fill them with everyone in society that is responsible for ruining lives. Protecting the poor from the rich is what the law was originally supposed to be all about after all. If it doesn’t do what it says on the tin any more, then we’ve moving back towards paganistic barbarianism like Ancient Rome.