Buncrana haulage firm fined €7,500 for series of breaches of transport regulations

A Buncrana haulage company has been fined a total of €7,500 for a series of breaches of driver safety regulations.

The company, W Gill Livestock Transport Ltd, of Lisfannon, Buncrana, as well as its director William Gill, of the same address, and employee Shirley McDaid, of Pairc Na Haluine, Buncrana, admitted a series of offences at Buncrana District Court.

These included failure to ensure correct use of a tachograph on a lorry; improper use of a driver card; failure to produce records; falsification of data; and failure to take the legally required driver rest period, thereby breaching working time regulations.

The charges related to a ten-day period in July 2024, while the failure to produce records offence was from October 2024.

RSA Transport Officer Michelle Shepard was sworn-in to summarise the facts of the case in court, explaining how she had been on duty at a multi-disciplinary checkpoint on the N17 in Galway on July 31, 2024, when a lorry driven by Mr Gill was stopped.

Officer Shepard spoke to the driver and took a download of the tachograph in the vehicle.

“I noted that the driver card in the tachograph had no driving recorded on it, and there was another driver card used in the name of Shirley McDaid,” the RSA witness explained.

“I then cautioned the driver and confirmed the driver as William Gill, of Lisfannon, Buncrana, and I confirmed the owner and operator of the vehicle as W Gill Livestock Transport Ltd, of the same address.”

“I confirmed that the driver had used Shirley McDaid’s driver card,” the RSA witness added.

The court was told that driver cards, which are issued by the Road Safety Authority, are for monitoring driving hours, and the nature of driving – and a card must be inserted before a HGV is started, while it’s an offence to use a card that isn’t your own.

Photos of the Scania S770 lorry were handed in to Judge Emile Daly in court.

The court was told that on July 30, 2024, the driver had commenced at 7.51am and worked a shift-time of 25 hours, 53 mins, with a total drive time of 15 hours, 40 mins, in breach of the RSA regulations.

Officer Shepard said Mr Gill was not allowed to proceed from the checkpoint, and another driver had to come to take the vehicle away.

RSA Transport Officer Shepard subsequently visited the premises of W Gill Transport on October 10, 2024 and further cautioned William Gill and Shirley McDaid in respect of the offences.

She confirmed that Mr Gill was a director of the company, while Shirley McDaid was an employee. The court was told that Mr Gill confirmed that he had used Shirley McDaid’s card on a number of dates.

Inspector Shepard revealed how, during one period, there had been a drive time of 76 hours, 2 mins, with the longest continuous rest period of 4 hours, 41 minutes, while there were no manual entries on the tachograph.

She gave another example of how Shirley McDaid’s card was put in the tachograph in County Cork, “but I had no proof of how she got down to Cork”.

The court heard how there were no concerns about the truck in question, while the defendants did engage with the RSA officer.

State Solicitor Kieran Dillon further told the judge that the company had a number of previous convictions for similar transport offences.

Defending the case, Mr Evan O’Dwyer, of O'Dwyer LLP, Co Mayo, pointed out how some of the journeys undertaken by his clients would have been exempted from the RSA regulations, as livestock hauliers.

“There are categories of exemptions published by the RSA. There are aspects of work that livestock hauliers have that are exempted,” he explained.

“This is a livestock haulage company that draws animals from around the country for the purpose of slaughter at an abattoir in Donegal.”

“There isn’t sufficient supply of animals for the abattoir, so the livestock hauliers have to go further afield in order to collect cattle.”

“Point to point there’s no exemption. But while they are down there, there is work that is exempted for shorter journeys. The vehicle goes as far as West Cork for drawing animals back up.”

State Solicitor Dillon said journeys of less that 100kms are exempted, “but Tuam is well beyond that from Donegal.”

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Continuing mitigation on behalf of his clients, Mr O’Dwyer said the Lisfannon firm is a modest company, run by a husband and wife and four other employees.

“They work too hard and at the time they were cutting corners. There have been huge efforts made to turn the business around since,” he said.

“The record doesn’t look good, but these offences were over a short space of time, approximately ten days, and there’s a degree of overlap on the offences.”

After listening to the evidence and defence put forward, Judge Daly imposed convictions and fines totalling €7,500.

She gave the defendants credit for their guilty plea, but said the regulations are in place to protect everyone and must be adhered to.

The judge said: “The [guilty] plea has saved the court and the prosecution considerable time, and that has to be taken into account.”

“But what needs to be underlined is that the reason these regulations are in place is essentially to allow for monitoring of careful driving of people who are regularly on the road.”

“They need to ensure that people aren’t driving too much; that the people who say they are driving are the people who are driving; and also to take into account the obligations under the Working Time Act.”

Judge Daly added: “Safety of drivers and safety of road users and safety of pedestrians are at the heart of these prosecutions – and that should not be diluted in any way.”