Trailer hire firms not liable for fines

The transport minister’s counsel argued that where a trailer number plate obscures the plate of the towing vehicle, the trailer owner is the primary target for prosecution. Not so, said the court.

Trailer hire companies are fed up with the mountain of traffic tickets accumulated by customers breaking road laws.

For years, the police have been pinning the blame on trailer hire companies for offences committed by customers. This has created all sorts of difficulties: arrest warrants have been issued against the trailer owners, and traffic authorities have refused to issue renewal licences for their trailers or to renew drivers’ licences until all outstanding fines have been paid.

All this came to a head earlier this month in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) when the minister of transport went head-to-head with Brackenfell Trailer Hire over the government’s interpretation of the National Road Traffic Act. The Act presumes the owner of an offending vehicle is also the driver in a case where the actual driver cannot be identified.

Brackenfell, which has 3 000 trailers for hire, originally argued before the Western Cape High Court that it could not be held responsible for the misbehaviour of customers, and the court agreed.

The minister’s legal counsel argued that a trailer fell under the definition of motor vehicle in the Act, which meant traffic authorities were within their rights to hold the trailer owner liable for offences.

“It is as well to remember that a ‘trailer’ is defined as a vehicle which is not self-propelled but designed to be drawn by a motor vehicle,” said the judgment.

Traffic authorities rely increasingly on surveillance cameras which often capture only the trailer number plate, not the towing vehicle. This left Brakenfell Trailer Hire and two other respondents to pick up the tab, and deal with the arrest warrants, for offences committed by customers.

“In those circumstances, the prosecuting authorities in whose area of jurisdiction the traffic offences concerned were committed institute criminal proceedings against the owner of the vehicle whose registration number is depicted on the photograph, in this instance the trailer that is in tow,” reads the SCA judgment.

The minister argued trailer owners could use the redirect process in cases where a third party driver committed an offence.

Where a trailer number plate obscures the plate of the towing vehicle, the trailer owner is the primary target for prosecution.

The SCA dismissed the minister’s appeal against the earlier Cape High Court ruling.