Customs officers working in the Norwegian town of Ørje recently stopped a lorry with a trailer that had cracked as a result of being fully loaded with paper rolls weighing a combined total of 30 tonnes.
According to Norwegian road transport website tungt.no, the Estonian truck caught the eye of customs officers, who pulled the truck over and ordered an inspection.
Øyvind Grotterød from the Norwegian Public Roads Administration said the trailer was dangerously close to splitting in two:
We were called by Customs, who wondered if we could come to them to look at a trailer they suspected there was something wrong with. We went up there, and upon inspection, we discovered that there was only a short time before the trailer would split in two.
The inspectors found two large cracks in the trailer frame on both sides at the rear edge of the support legs. The driver was aware of the damage, but chose to drive on anyway. The trailer was separated, and the police took care of the driver.
“We separated the trailer on site and the driver was made aware that this trailer was not roadworthy. The load had to be unloaded and the trailer had to be loaded onto another vehicle for further transport”, explained Grotterød.
Photo credit: Statens vegvesen