39 bodies found in Lorry : illegals ?

[Mothersruin]

thetapeworm said:

Diane Abbott also had a stab at a statement in response, it didn't add much to the initial one but she managed to add some Brexit comments and suggested that we need to open up legitimate routes for refugees and asylum seekers to prevent this kind of thing happening.

Edited by thetapeworm on Wednesday 23 October 13:16

We do that, in the countries where the camps are, at least we did in Syria.

[AJL308]

red_slr said:

The blame rests with the driver. Its his responsibility simple as that. That is assuming he picked up the trailer at the origin. Given he has been arrested I suspect that is going to be the case, because if he was simply trunking the trailer from A to B after it arrived in the UK he would just be interviewed one would presume.

To be honest, if you're ever in the position of being not guilty of a serious crime but somehow at the scene/involved/in possession of dead bodies, it's often the best idea that you are arrested. Once under arrest certain things have to be done and others cannot be done and you have certain rights. It's way more difficult for you to be stitched up or for the police to cut corners and get you wrongly convicted. A simple "interview" can differ significantly in nature depending on whether you are actually under arrest or not.

[Getragdogleg]

227bhp said:

Getragdogleg said:

No, that example is common sense, asking a driver to be responsible for a truck is fair enough but to suggest he is responsible for illegals is asking too much given the tricks and sheer ingenuity often employed to stow away on.

Many trailers we pick up are sealed with special locks and one use only seals. I'm not allowed to look in the trailer because that would break the seal and the end customer has to check the seals are intact or they refuse the whole lot, especially foodstuffs.

How am I responsible for anyone in the load if I cant check it ? But yet I am and I am fined if there are stowaways.

And no, its all the little erosions like this that add up to create a society who don't want to help and just want to blame someone else all the time. In this case the drivers are at the bottom of the ladder and yet are told time and time again that all responsibility rests with them, we are fined and told we are "professional drivers" when its time to point the finger of blame at us.

The rest of the time people wish we were invisible or didn't exist.

What you've written there isn't making any sense. Surely all the driver needs to do is look at the seal, if it's broken then well.....

They are spoofing the seals, tampering with them and putting them back so they don't look touched and you can pull on them and they don't fall apart.

cutting their way in from above, below, all kinds of hard to spot stuff.

[AJL308]

WCZ said:

Eric Mc said:

However,. after Brexit, when the world is perfect, this will never happen again as the Border Force will be enlarged massively (at no cost to the Exchequer, of course) and every truck coming into the country will be thoroughly searched by a large team

I notice the mail isn't accepting comments on their article for this, I'd imagine many of them would be along either the lines of "this won't happen again if we get no deal" or zero sympathy "they got what they deserve" remarks

There has been an arrest so proceedings are "active" from the point of view of publishing stuff.

[Derek Smith]

SeeFive said:

One of my brother’s drivers was arrested on a totally spurious higher level offence a few years ago when one was found to have clambered into his lorry (french side). It was complicated a bit by the fact that there were a couple of passports found in the wagon’s glove box which a previous driver and mate had left by mistake in the vehicle - leading to some serious questions to be answered about why there were two passports for people who weren’t in the vehicle! In the end my brother paid a £1,000 fine issued to his driver, which seems to be the baseline for each one found on your vehicle (or was at the time).

Interestingly, the responses when I posted for advice on here was that my brother was a people trafficking, passport forging, drug dealing no good bd, which is about as far from the truth as can be imagined

Those strange passports found in possession of a lorry driver will tend to complicate matters a bit.

[Getragdogleg]

Gameface said:

Sounds like you hate your job.

Yes, the road transport industry sucks balls.

It is over politicised and has been turned into a revenue stream by the Government, it is almost impossible to do the job now without infringing some regulation that will lead to a fine.

I challenge anyone to do it and not become jaded and cynical very quickly.

I have been in the trade 25+ years.

[Sway]

Seeing some twists emerging in the press in the last half hour...

Claims the truck deliberately took a route away from the major ports.

Truck registered in Bulgaria, company owned by NI woman, Bulgaria saying it left them the day after registration in 17 and hadn't been back since.

Difficult at this stage to tell what's press hysteria, and what's emerging truth - but 40 people dying in a truck isn't going to be a story that fades particularly quickly.

[Earthdweller]

The truck at the centre of the container tragedy in Essex is registered in Bulgaria and is owned by an Irish woman, according to the Bulgarian foreign ministry.

"The Scania truck was registered in the city of Varna under the name of a company owned by an Irish citizen," the ministry said.

Bulgarian public broadcaster BNR, citing unnamed sources, said the truck, which has been registered in Bulgaria on 19 June 2017, had left the Balkan country the next day and has not returned since

[AJL308]

Gameface said:

Getragdogleg said:

REALIST123 said:

It’s the truck driver’s job to keep his truck secure.

Its that sort of binary thinking that is why this country is in the st it is in.

Nothing like a bit over exaggeration.

It's up to you to keep your car secure. Leave the keys in it and once it's been nicked, see if the insurance company pay out.

If you don't leave the padlock keys in then that's the same thing though. It's not reasonable to expect a driver to examine a padlock in minute detail in dark for evidence that it has been tampered with and glued back together.

[Getragdogleg]

With regard to this case, I am sorry for those who have died.

The perpetrators of the crime must be brought to justice.

I would love to also cause the organisers some physical pain because this st will now make the job a tiny bit harder and further tarnish the already tattered reputation of road haulage not to mention the added legislation that will knee jerk itself into existence for us ordinary mortals to not only understand but also obey under pain of more fines.

Thanks a lot.

[Art0ir]

A lot of haulage companies are registered to a portacabin in Eastern Europe for tax and insurance reasons. Bulgaria seems to be the current favoured spot, a lot of Bulgarian plates on the road in the UK and Ireland. I wouldn’t read into that bit too much.

[milkround]

AJL308 said:

If you don't leave the padlock keys in then that's the same thing though. It's not reasonable to expect a driver to examine a padlock in minute detail in dark for evidence that it has been tampered with and glued back together.

Forget about padlocks being cut. They will happily put a hole in the roof of a trailer. Not on a reefer. But unless you can climb on top of the trailer you will never know. The security seals will be perfect. A driver doesn't carry around massive ladders - nor should they be expected to climb up and check such things.

[milkround]

Art0ir said:

A lot of haulage companies are registered to a portacabin in Eastern Europe for tax and insurance reasons. Bulgaria seems to be the current favoured spot, a lot of Bulgarian plates on the road in the UK and Ireland. I wouldn’t read into that bit too much.

Exactly right.

Can think of some big names doing is all the time. XPO, Kuehne + Nagel even Stobarts are in on the act with their transporters.

It means nothing in real terms - apart from the truck was probably running more bent than spagetti which again isn't unusual for an Irish firm. But people will use this as logic that the driver knew they were in there - which is almost certainly did not.

[milkround]

Art0ir said:

Initforthemoney said:

Seems an odd place for it to stop?

Or was it pulled over?

It was the designated meeting point if other drivers are to be believed - take that with a pinch of salt

Its pulled over on an industrial estate. I will bet anyone £500 the driver pulled over to check the temps and to see if any pallets had moved (as if they had it's likely to be rejected). It's totally normal.

I'm not sure which drivers are saying this is unusual. If they are then they have not a lot of experience with real driving and probably do mickey mouse local stuff. I would do exactly the same 10 times out of 10 when pulling a reefer.

If that driver wanted to make money and was on the Euro driving scene - he'd pack out a few kg's of class a drugs and take his chance. Much more money. Much less risk. I know of not a single driver who would dream of having illegals in his trailer... (both for moral reasons - but also because they would wreck whatever he was loaded with) It's utterly ridiculous.

[Sway]

milkround said:

Art0ir said:

A lot of haulage companies are registered to a portacabin in Eastern Europe for tax and insurance reasons. Bulgaria seems to be the current favoured spot, a lot of Bulgarian plates on the road in the UK and Ireland. I wouldn’t read into that bit too much.

Exactly right.

Can think of some big names doing is all the time. XPO, Kuehne + Nagel even Stobarts are in on the act with their transporters.

It means nothing in real terms - apart from the truck was probably running more bent than spagetti which again isn't unusual for an Irish firm. But people will use this as logic that the driver knew they were in there - which is almost certainly did not.

Thanks, as I said wasn't sure what was press hysteria and what was emerging 'truth'.

[rover 623gsi]

Breaking BBC online

Essex Police said earlier today that it was thought the vehicle had entered the British mainland via Holyhead in north west Wales on Saturday.

But Reuters news agency is now reporting that UK police believe the lorry travelled from Zeebrugge in Belgium into Purfleet, which is near Grays in the Thurrock district of Essex, shortly after 00:30 this morning

[JuniorD]

rover 623gsi said:

Breaking BBC online

Essex Police said earlier today that it was thought the vehicle had entered the British mainland via Holyhead in north west Wales on Saturday.

But Reuters news agency is now reporting that UK police believe the lorry travelled from Zeebrugge in Belgium into Purfleet, which is near Grays in the Thurrock district of Essex, shortly after 00:30 this morning

It's a bit disconcerting that they don't already know for sure where and when this vehicle entered mainland UK.

[Petrus1983]

The guys been named and all his FB photos have been published by some papers. Really don’t agree with it even though I know it’s the norm these days.

[Shakermaker]

JuniorD said:

It's a bit disconcerting that they don't already know for sure where and when this vehicle entered mainland UK.

The trailer could surely have been switched between lorry cabs though, at some point? Which I presume is more difficult to trace

[essayer]

Looks like the tractor unit came into Holyhead, and picked up the trailer locally to Grays - it had come in from Zebrugge
Starting to make a bit more sense now