German road police have pressed charges against a truck driver and truck owner after an unroadworthy HGV hauling an insecure load of timber was inspected on the A9 in Thuringia.
The dangerous vehicle was inspected during checks in Hermsdorfer Kreuz on the A9 on Thursday.
During the checks, a number of issues were found with the trucks inspected. However, by far the worst case was a lorry hauling tree logs from the district of Greiz. The truck was overloaded by more than ten tons, and the length of the vehicle did not meet legal requirements either.
In addition, the driver had barely secured the logs. Only two ropes were used to hold them in place, which could easily have resulted in an accident and put other road users in serious danger.
If those issues weren’t already enough to cause alarm, an expert from Dekra also found that both the truck and the trailer were in a very poor technical condition. The vehicle was thus deemed as being clearly unroadworthy.
“Significant defects were found in the brake system, which would have led to a disaster in the event of emergency braking,” said the Thuringia police.
As one would expect, the police ordered the tree logs to be reloaded and the truck was not allowed to continue its journey. Moreover, charges have been pressed against the truck driver and the owner of the truck.
Photo credit: Thüringer Polizei