Last week, a court in the Danish city of Roskilde sentenced a driver and a German haulier to a total fine of DKK 265,400 (€35,600) for violating driving and rest times.
The case went to court after the Danish road police pulled over the haulier’s truck as part of routine checks. The police noticed the truck’s driver had consumed a lot of energy drink, and decided to inspect further. They then discovered the driver was guilty of several violations of the driving and rest time rules.
In addition to the fine, the lorry driver has been banned from driving a HGV for 6 months. Commenting on the case, prosecutor John Catre Nielsen explained that he was happy with the verdict:
I am generally satisfied with the verdict, and the court found the driver guilty in 26 cases, while the haulier was found guilty in 27 cases. In addition to the fine, the driver is also denied the right to drive a small and large truck with and without a large trailer, small and large bus with and without a large trailer and an ordinary car with a large trailer in Denmark for the next six months.
According to Police Commissioner Henrik Fobian, cases such as the one above are not as simple to investigate as it seems:
Our officers do not just spend time stopping heavy vehicles on the roads and checking them. In this case, we have used the professionalism of the officers to investigate many issues. It is not entirely simple when a driver has violated the driving and rest time rules and at the same time for long periods has driven without a driver’s license in the tachograph, as we can not say with certainty who has been behind the wheel on such trips.
Photo credit: Dickelbers / Wikimedia Commons