Caution stickers save trucker from accident claim

Kevin Mayhew THE PRESENCE of caution stickers on a vehicle has swung a Small Claims Court decision in Freightliner Transport of Durban’s favour after an accident involving one of its vehicles. Faced with a claim for R3 000 from a driver who was struck by a Freightliner truck as it tried to exit from a parking just as the claimant was trying to turn into the parking in front of it, the company defended itself on the basis of stickers clearly visible to the driver warning that the claimant’s vehicle was in the truck’s blind spot. According to the owner of Clairwood-based Freightliner, Kevin Martin, the court accepted his contention that the claimant had entered the parking forwards which is contrary to the legal guidelines of how such a manoeuvre should be executed (backwards). “By moving sharply across two lanes to nip into the parking, the claimant entered the blindspot of the truck which had a sticker to that effect on its footplate clearly warning of the problem,” says Martin. The Traffic Training College of the Department of Transport in Pietermaritzburg supplied the information that assisted Freightliner in its defence.