A SKELETAL truck carrying a fully loaded freight container was photographed by Wolfgang Lehmann in City Deep last month. The state of its safety critical items almost gave Lehmann a heart attack and is just another reminder of the flagrant disregard for the law expressed by many operators out there. " The number plate starts with an ‘F’, so it is not a new trailer anymore," says Lehmann. "And typically, the cops stand with a clip board next to the road ready to write speeding fines or stop taxis. They know all about this type of work because it is easy prey. But they know  nothing about safety critical items on the big babies - the ones that kill you, your friends and your family."  

The litany of illegality on this truck goes like this, explains Lehmann: "On the one axle the pushrod is not even connected to the slack adjuster. There is no load sensing valve, no under run bumper, no mud flaps, all the brake adjusters (slack adjusters) are set incorrectly and one of the container corner castings is not even secured with the twist lock (the twist lock didn't even work) and the spring is trying to jump out of the rocker. And when this driver kills some innocent people on the road the statistic will say ‘driver said the brakes failed’. When are the Traffic Authorities going to learn what is important?"