Tromode chemical spill driver fined for carrying unsecured load

The road was closed for 10 hours as a result of the spill

The driver of a heavy goods vehicle that shed its load of chemicals in Tromode closing the road for 10 hours has been fined.

Neville Marshall, of Conister Road in Douglas, admitted driving a vehicle with an unsecure load on Ballafletcher Road on 12 August last year.

The court heard he was a self-employed driver for a haulage firm and had not loaded the chemicals on to the curtained trailer himself.

Magistrates fined the 65-year-old £400.

He was also ordered to pay £500 in costs and given three penalty points on his licence.

The court heard he had been working as a driver for Graylaw and was given a job delivering six 1,000-litre containers to the Isle of Man Creamery in Tromode.

But when he tried to deliver the load to the creamery it was rejected as staff at the site did not have the machinery to offload the containers.

Three crates, which contained potassium borate, hydrogen peroxide and sodium hydroxide (caustic soda), fell off the back of the vehicle as he exited the site onto Ballafletcher Road, with one spilling some of its contents onto the carriageway.

The defence said he had played no part in loading or securing the chemicals onto the trailer he had been towing as that was done by employees of the haulage firm.

Sentencing him, Magistrates Chairman Ken Faragher said the bench had "sympathy" with the situation he had found himself in, as he had ended up in court "simply because he had been driving the vehicle".