Grimsby cyclist-killer truck driver’s appeal against sentence length thrown out

In the trail reports the driver, White reported that his employer (not identified) encouraged their drivers to 'maintain momentum' by holding back on braking, which in turn implies that drivers would take risks at junctions, and, to avoid braking would accelerate to seize 'priority' over a road user coming from another direction.

There may well be other common (mal)practices* underlying this style of operation, such as came out in with driver Palmer, and Fry's Logistics, with whom Lidl had placed the contract to supply stores in Cornwall from their Bristol depot.  In the competitive market, and the 'difficult' model of servicing a far-distant part of the UK, it was perhaps to be expected that a local company would win this contract, especially if the priority of price suppressed the propriety of a business model which recognised the duty of care running back up the chain of command from driver through operator to the principal client, to case no harm through their business activity

So an appeal to those with more local knowledge, who is this operator, apparently telling drivers to avoid using the brakes, and who is their client, happy to brush aside their liability for the actions of contractors acting on the client's instructions to deliver - perhaps to unrealistic schedules?

* It took 29 months of work by CyclingUK to finally get Mark Fry held to account for the complicity of his company in delivering 2 deaths on the A30, when Palmer, driving a night shift on the Bristol-Penzance 'trunk' AND working day shifts as a mechanic, drove into them. Tachograph records (which Fry as Transport Manager, and MD should have been monitoring) showed Palmer frequently exceeded the speed limiter settings on the trucks he drove (either by tampering or disengaging the gears on downhill sections).  Worrying is that Lidl has never provided any response to their clear failure to assess and monitor their contractor, engaged presumably because they were the best priced (or only?) deal on offer. The warning signs were there clearly 2 years before the fatal crash, when Arthur Fry had his licence revoked, and Mark Fry applied for an Operators Licence, using the same base and presumably the same trucks. It took considerably longer than the regular 4 week period from posting the application notice to issuing the licence, and the licence carried the condtion that Arthur Fry would have no involvement in running the new company.  A clear signal that any client should have taken to pay careful attention to the contractor's performance.

Depressingly this seems to appear for many of the companies whose drivers kill in crashes, hinting at a lack of a functioning safety culture.                

Hopefully he'll get tangoed in the showers.

Delighted that the judge holds Mervyn White to account for his driving & his attitude.  

The "two to tango" comment is disgusting beyond belief. 

It is a shame that appeals with no merit do not themselves attract some merit, as in an addition to the  sentence, surely it should be so if only to reduce the cost to society of worthless appeals. He should have been handed a further punishment of a furthe year or something

I would have given him 6 months off the sentence for his guilty plea.

Then added 2 years more for the changing stories and attitude, then another 2 years for the "two to tango" remark.

Well done that judge. Of course I would've liked the original sentence to be longer. Killing somebody for the sake of trying to save a few pence on fuel.

OMG!  Is the judiciary finally coming to its senses?

Very good news and in time for Xmas too.

The really worrying thing is that his legal team really thought he had a chance of reducing the sentence, which was pretty light anyway.  Hopefully this will deter any more speculative appeals for reduction in sentence by killer drivers.