Code: RT88521.

Fixed Penalty Notice: £100 & 3 points.

Act: Section 40A of the Road Traffic Act 1988.

Incorrect loading can have fatal consequences.

Unrestrained items can be thrown from a vehicle when driving over an uneven surface, or when cornering, braking or accelerating.

Large objects should be secured to the vehicle with straps or chains.

Smaller objects should be encased or covered.

235 fatal or serious injury collisions.

In the UK, between 2017 – 2021, there were 235 fatal or serious injury collisions caused by vehicle loads in the road (Department for Transport).

An insecure, dangerous load. Large objects unrestrained and smaller items uncovered.

Some of these wooden planks are loose and could easily be thrown from the vehicle.

Tools and scaffolding clamps which could easily bounce from the vehicle.

Insecure load including glass table.

Pedestrian crushed by insecure generator.

In 2016 a sixty kilogram generator was thrown from a van as it drove over a level crossing. It struck two pedestrians, killing one and severely injuring the other.

The driver was found guilty of causing death and serious injury by dangerous driving.

The Ford Transit drop-side van which carried the insecure generator.

Driver killed by loose concrete.

In 2020 a driver was killed when a piece of rock fell from a vehicle travelling in the opposite direction and crashed through the windscreen.

The offending vehicle did not stop, and the driver never traced.

It is believed that the concrete fell from a tipper with no cover.

Victim’s vehicle after the impact.