On Tuesday, German traffic police inspected a truck on the A9 towards Berlin; the trailer’s tarpaulin appeared to be bulging to the point its load was in danger of falling out. The vehicle’s driver was also found to have violated drivers' hours rules.
After pulling the truck over and opening the trailer, officers saw how the aluminium cargo inside had slipped to the right due to insecure loading. Indeed, it had even ripped through the tarpaulin as the photos above show.
According to the police, the driver said he had noticed the issue earlier, and had tried to remedy the problem with some tension straps.
After speaking to his employers over the phone, the HGV driver had told the police he would try to fix the burst tarpaulin with some tape.
However, the police were having none of it, and the truck was prohibited from continuing its journey until the load had been fully secured and the tarpaulin properly fixed.
Things then got worse for the driver when the police took a look at his tachograph data. Officers spotted that the driver had shortened his required 9 hour break by more than 50% within a 24 h period. As a result of this and the insecure load, the trucker was forced to pay an on-the-spot fine of an undisclosed amount.
Photo credit: Polizei Mittelfranken