HGV Driving without due care and attention

Wifeoftrucker

Good morning,

I hope someone can advise. 

My husband is a HGV driver and has held a car licence since 2010 and HGV since 2022. No endorsements at all. 

His employer has brought it to his attention that they have had a letter asking which driver as driving without due care and attention. He's still yet to receive the endorsement.

He knows the road it happened and date and cannot think of anything that happened. It's a narrow country lane where it just pulls off onto a main road. No accident or anything as he's aware of. 

He's researched it found a course may be offered for first offense, but depends on location apparently (if so, that's fair 🙄). 

Does anyone know anything about this at all? He's highly concerned he will loose his job. Thanks

Nasqueron

Likely dashcam footage which the police thought was sufficient to do it, maybe it's a manner of driving he thinks is normal but someone else didn't think was acceptable

Wifeoftrucker

Thanks,

Sorry if my question was not clear. I was enquiring about the course. I am guessing they will actually send the evidence of the issue when it arrives. 

MattMattMattUK

Wifeoftrucker said:

Thanks,

Sorry if my question was not clear. I was enquiring about the course. I am guessing they will actually send the evidence of the issue when it arrives. 

The registered keeper of the vehicle is first required to identify the driver, once that has done the driver will then be contacted confirming the alleged offense and giving them their options.

Mildly_Miffed

As Matt says, it's not at that stage yet.

Right now, the keeper is being asked to say who was driving. They need to do that within 28 days of receiving the request.

The driver then receives his own request to either agree he was driving, or to nominate somebody else.

Once the driver is known, then the next steps will depend on their own licence etc status - you can only do each course once every three years.
If the driver's not eligible for the course, or one isn't offered, then it'll go to points - probably 3pts/£100 fixed penalty - but if they're already on 9pts, then it's straight to court.

No evidence is necessarily produced UNLESS it goes to court. The course or fixed penalty is offered as an alternative, where the driver agrees it was them. If they think they were innocent, then they need to go to court, where they'll get all the evidence in good time.

Somebody else obviously thought there was an issue, and submitted evidence - probably dashcam - which the police believe is sufficient to support the charge. That may well suggest that the driver was simply not looking properly at the junction... hence not seeing any issue.

His job is entirely dependent on his employer.

paul_c123

He might lose his job if he was driving like a **** - can you blame the employer??? Or they may further review the evidence and decide not to progress it at all (with there being time limits on the serving of a NIP, they might have done that even if they don't progress). If he doesn't remember it, its quite possible a car did something odd in a truck's blind spot (they do have massive blind spots, after all..) or it might be that the car driver is a dim-wit and doesn't understand the space an HGV needs, and did something stupid, etc etc 

Too many unknowns until you have solid evidence.

molerat

Son in law had something similar, police contacting company with dash cam footage of him braking hard, smoking tyres etc, on an open road in front of a car nearly causing an accident.  When the company supplied the dash cam from the truck of a car and caravan in front pulling off into a slip lane at a junction then changing their mind it put the following car's dash cam into perspective, it was all he could do to avoid a crash due to no fault of his own. Two sides to every story.

TooManyPoints

Some forces (I won't say "most" because I don' know how many) will not offer a course for careless driving when an HGV is involved.. I believe here are some who won't even offer a fixed penalty.

Your husband will have to wait and see. He should be prepared for the police to be unwilling to share any evidence or even provide details of what is alleged. They are not obliged to do that unless the mattter is heard in court.

Grey_Critic

If he was driving an HGV then there will be a Tachograph record of the journey - others have mentioned Dash Cam footage. Does he have any?

Dash cam footage and some drivers can be misleading - In Bradford a couple of weeks ag I had TAXIS sounding their horns and trying to cut me up as they were in a hurry - my dash cam says I was correct.

For obvious reasons he should take the course if they offer it but perhaps he should wait until he get the paperwork before doing anything.

Mildly_Miffed

Grey_Critic said:

If he was driving an HGV then there will be a Tachograph record of the journey

Which just shows speed at any given time, not location - let alone whether he was driving with due care.

Car_54

Careless driving covers a wide range of seriousness. At one end, a course or fixed penalty may be offered: at the other, disqualification will be an option. At the moment, we can’t know.