Lorry driver banned after Forth bridge debacle

COURT: Aleksander Niemiec’s vehicle overturned after he flouted road signs

The driver of the lorry that overturned on the Forth Road Bridge in January’s gales, blocking it for 19 hours, has been fined £1,000, banned from driving for two years and ordered to resit the driving test and HGV licence test.

Fifty-five-year-old Aleksander Niemiec from Monsall Drive, Macclesfield, Cheshire, appeared before Sheriff Kenneth Maciver QC at Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday with a Polish interpreter.

Niemiec’s solicitor, Gordon Stewart, said his client was pleading guilty to dangerous driving on January 11 this year by failing to comply with prominent road signs indicating that due to high winds the bridge was closed to highsided vehicles, resulting in his HGV overturning, damaging the bridge, his vehicle and injuring himself.

Depute fiscal Peter Motion said the accident occurred about 2am and when the lorry overturned it damaged 14 metres of the metal railing on the central carriageway.

Niemiec, he added, had suffered injuries to his head and hands.

Mr Stewart said his client had been in this country for nine years and been driving for 35 years, mostly as a lorry driver.

He had a clean licence and no previous convictions, but since the incident had lost his job and was now living on small savings.

Mr Stewart said: “He had noticed speed restriction signs but did not notice that high-sided vehicles were banned”.

“He is fully aware of the severe impact this had,” he added.

Sheriff Maciver told Niemiec: “This was a wilful disregard for the road signs. The consequences were considerable.

“The bridge was closed for a long time and it is a major artery for road traffic.