Cootes fined $50,000 over serious truck defects after fatal crash probe
A trucking company involved in a fiery crash that killed two people in Sydney last year has been fined $50,000 for serious defects in its Victorian petrol tanker fleet.
VicRoads began investigating the Cootes Victorian trucking fleet after one of the company's tankers crashed and exploded in Sydney's northern beaches in October 2013.
The crash at Mona Vale leaked thousands of litres of fuel into waterways and bushland, sparking a massive clean-up operation.
The Victorian investigation into the fleet found 67 serious defects.
VicRoads prosecutors told the Melbourne Magistrates Court that the Victorian investigation was sparked by information from NSW authorities.
They said the defects in the Victorian fleet posed a significant risk of causing a major accident.
One example heard by the court detailed a large chunk of metal that had broken off within the engine of one tanker, which investigators found wedged between the brake pad and another part of the engine, causing a significant loss of breaking power.
Cootes 'fully cooperated' with VicRoads investigators, lawyers say
The court also heard Cootes Transport declined a request to be interviewed by VicRoads officers during the course of the investigation.
Instead, the company admitted the faults through a statement prepared by its lawyers.
Lawyers for Cootes told the court the company could not have been more helpful, and had cooperated fully with VicRoads.
They said the company opened its Spotswood and Dandenong depots to investigators and took its fleet off the road of its own accord.
"It's probably the highest level of cooperation you could get," the company's lawyer said.
Cootes' lawyers said the company had already suffered heavy financial losses in the millions, through loss of contracts due to publicity about the defects.
The court heard the company, established in 1965, was bought by McAleese in 2012, and the defects were mostly due to an ageing fleet of vehicles.
But the magistrate questioned why it had taken so long after the purchase for the fleet to be taken off the road.
"Why was there not an inspection of the fleet at the time of purchase?" he asked.
The company was fined more than $50,000, or $750 per breach, well short of the maximum penalty available of $6,000 per charge.
Victorian laws were recently changed to allow for greater penalties for such offending.
The fine follows a $440,000 fine in New South Wales, plus legal costs against the company over defects in that state's fleet of tankers.
Cootes Transport has been given two months to pay the Victorian fine.
