Penalties call after trucker case

Rolf Artmann had been driving almost non-stop for 19 hours

A transport group is calling for foreign operators to face the same scrutiny as UK firms following the death of an Anglesey pensioner.

A German lorry driver was jailed for four years on Friday for the crash in which Dorothy Thomas was killed.

Rolf Artmann, from Dortmund, admitted causing the death of the 63-year-old after driving non-stop from Dover.

Freight Transport Association spokesman Geoff Dossetter said: "This is absolutely a road safety issue."

"We really ought to be doing everything we possibly can to find out information about foreign vehicles, in order that we can properly enforce the regulations as they apply to UK vehicles," added Mr Dossetter.

"It's also a commercial issue of course, because if operators are abusing these regulations then they have a commercial advantage in comparison with UK operators who are observing the rules.

I believe the magistrates and the judges have got to start and reflect the crime that has been committed Ken Mitchell

"This is wrong, wrong, wrong."

Mold Crown Court heard on Friday how Artmann, 54, crashed into Ms Thomas' Suzuki car at Amlwch as he headed for a plastics factory.

The court heard the lorry driver had travelled virtually without a break from Germany.

He had been driving for 19 hours since the start of his journey and twice removed the chart from his tachograph to cover up offences in his drivers' hours.

He admitted he had drifted on to the wrong side of the road when his fully laden articulated lorry crashed head-on with Mrs Thomas's car at Cerrigman, near Amlwch, shortly after 0100 GMT on Thursday, 27 March.

In his impact statement to the court, Mrs Thomas's husband Gwyn said his life as he knew it had come to an end with her death.

'Broke the rules'

The call for better enforcement of regulations has been backed by Ken Mitchell, whose son was killed by an exhausted lorry driver 12 years ago.

"In our case the lorry driver had a phone in his cab and he phoned his firm up and said he was exhausted and wanted to get some sleep," recalled Mr Mitchell.

"He was told in no uncertain terms that he must deliver his load on time and the implication was that if he didn't do that he wouldn't have a job to come home to.

"I feel very, very angry about it. Because someone broke the rules my son died."

Mr Mitchell said he felt the courts need to flex their sentencing muscle to deter drivers from abusing the rules.

"When you consider death by driving sentence the maximum sentence is 14 years, I believe the magistrates and the judges have got to start and reflect the crime that has been committed and start and give them longer sentences," he added.