An HGV driver got so nervous when the police stopped him for control that he sped away from the officers and threw his tachograph card out of the window. However, the police managed to catch him up and find the card. Officers then arrested the driver for violent behaviour and also issued a fine for traffic offences.
As part of a routine inspection, Italian police officers stopped a lorry on April 7th at the Catania ring road.
During the inspection of the tachograph, the officers noticed that the driver of the truck was behaving nervously and violently – he swore and scolded the police. It was also suspicious that the man was constantly keeping his right hand in the pocket of his trousers.
The road inspectors thus asked their colleagues for backup to continue the inspection.
Officers soon arrived at the scene and tried to reassure the driver, who in turn became increasingly nervous; he started pushing the police, then suddenly jumped back into the vehicle and drove away.
A movie-like car chase then reportedly began, in which the zigzagging lorry was followed by the two police units who finally successfully stopped the trucker.
While running away, however, the nervous driver threw something out of the window, which the police found very quickly. It turned out the item was a tachograph card that had allowed the driver to circumvent the rules related to driving and rest time.
The lorry driver was then arrested for resisting the police and for being violent against public officials. He was also fined for traffic offences including violations of rules related to drivers’ hours.
Photo credit @ Gianni Franco/ Wikimedia Commons (illustrative purposes)