Jackett’s Coaches has been stripped of its O-Licence and owner Trevellyan Jackett, 33, is banned from being a Transport Manager, after a Public Inquiry heard of a catalogue of serious safety failings.
Mr Jackett, who told Traffic Commissioner Kevin Rooney he had ceased operating ahead of the hearing, was authorised to run eight vehicles from premises Callington and Gunnislake.
Traffic Commissioner Kevin Rooney, said Mr Jackett was “clearly in the habit of putting passengers and the public at serious risk.”
The inquiry was called after an investigation by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) into Mr Jackett’s vehicle safety standards.
In his report to the Traffic Commissioner’s Office, a DVSA vehicle examiner raised several concerns, including three vehicles with safety-critical defects.
One had a serious electrical fault which constituted a fire risk, the second had a brake pad missing and an excessively worn brake disc, while the third had a weakened interior floor which was likely to collapse.
During one of the checks, where Mr Jackett had driven the vehicle to Torpoint Community College carrying students, an examiner also found five out of six tyres were seriously defective. The DVSA officer concluded that the condition of the tyres could have led to a blow out, compromising control of the vehicle.
Records revealed that Mr Jackett had completed a vehicle defect check sheet before using the vehicle on the day and had recorded no defects.
The DVSA officer also identified that:
* Vehicles had not been given routine safety checks on time
* Defects identified by drivers were not being repaired for significant amounts of time
* The recent annual test history for vehicles was inadequate
* Vehicle inspections were carried out without appropriate facilities and equipment, as well as by unqualified individuals
* A vehicle was being kept at a location which the Traffic Commissioner had refused to authorise
Additionally, Mr Rooney heard that on 30 June 2016, one of Mr Jackett’s coaches lost a wheel, which struck another vehicle on the Tamar Bridge.
In another incident, on 15 December 2016, one of Mr Jackett’s vehicles collided with pedestrians crossing a road at the Tesco Filling Station on Transit Way in Plymouth. Two people were injured, one seriously.
A subsequent DVSA investigation concluded that although there were defects present on the vehicle, they had not contributed to the collision.
Making his orders, the Traffic Commissioner said it was inexcusable that Mr Jackett – as the driver, transport manager and licence holder – had not only driven a vehicle with seriously defective tyres but also failed to identify those defects during his daily check.
Mr Rooney also criticised the operator’s inadequate maintenance records for vehicles.
In one instance, where the vehicle had been found with a brake fault, no brake performance test was subsequently carried out to establish that the brakes were operating properly.
Disqualifying Mr Jackett from acting as a Transport Manager for two years, the Traffic Commissioner said: “His failure to manage his mechanic along with his personal disregard for the driver defect reporting system mean that I find his repute as a transport manager is lost.”
