I act on behalf of a client who was an agency driver on class 1 HGV's. He was working for DHL in 2005. He was sent on a number of delivery jobs and was on his way back to the depot when he drove in to collision with a low bridge. We don't know why he was routed that way. I know that there is a duty on drivers to check the height of their vehicle, but there is also a duty on employers to ensure that they have training and operating systems which ensure that drivers know the height of their vehicle, are provided with height indicators so that they can put the correct height in the vehicle to remind them as they approached the bridge.

In this case, the only height markers found after the accident were 2 little cards, not a full set. Our client says that if a vehicle had been "oversized" (which he says this one was at 15 foot 3) that he would have expected someone at his employers to tell him that. The height marker cards found meant he could only have put in 11 or 12 foot and 6 or 7 inches, so he could not have put in 15 foot 3". He assumed that the height set was correct to cover the vehicle and trailer he was driving. He was an agency driver so was in and out of different vehicles all the time.

So the law basically provides for duties on both sides.

All I am looking to do is to find drivers who can help me to understand how these matters generally work and what training and systems were in place at DHL in 2005. It happened in the Wakefield area. Apparently there are between 3 and 6 bridge strikes by lorries every day, so most companies should have systems designed to prevent them happening.

My client received very serious brain injuries and he can't remember anything about the accident or some time before. He will never work again and has lost everything, so it is incredibly important to him to try and succeed, even partly, in his case.

I am trying very hard to help him, but locating this kind of witness is very difficult which is why I approached your website.

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