A sheriff in Hamilton Sheriff Court has convicted a man under section 1A of the Road Traffic Act 1988 after a car slid off the back of a car transporter and injured a pedestrian.
On the 5th of December 2019, Gordon Maule, had collected cars going to auction from Glasgow and was transporting them back to Uddingston, where the company was based. The weather conditions were that of heavy rain and high winds. A three-tonne jeep was secured on the bottom deck of the vehicle and the industry standard safety straps were used. 
The court heard that Mr Andrew McClure was unloading boxes from the back of a delivery van in Uddingston when a car attempted to undertake him and collided with him and his vehicle. He attempted to get out of the way. He was treated by a nurse who was at the scene and who had been driving behind the accused’s transporter and had witnessed the jeep moving around. Mr McClure was taken to hospital and treated for a broken left femur. 
Two Crown witnesses agreed that the weather conditions would have increased the chances of the strap sliding off of a secured vehicle. Also, the high suspension of the jeep would have further increased the chances of it become loose. The Crown argued that the accused ought to have known that driving the transporter in the conditions would be dangerous. 
No evidence was led by the defence and a no case to answer submission was made. The Sheriff repelled this. 
Sheriff Bovey in providing the decision of the court stated: “The accused has worked as a driver loading vehicles with such straps for four years in the west of Scotland where wet weather is common. An inference can be drawn that he has become aware of the propensity of the straps he uses in his work to become loose in wet weather. In any event, I consider it open to the Court to hold that a person loading cars onto a transporter ought to acquaint himself of the known hazards of doing so.”
He concluded: “Given the danger that the loss of a vehicle poses to other road users and the public in general, I have no doubt that driving a transporter loaded with cars which were secured by a method which he should have known was unsafe in the prevailing conditions fell far below what would be expected of a competent and careful driver.”
As a result, the accused was convicted of dangerous driving.