Police intercept overloaded truck

About 3pm on Saturday 7 December, a Heavy Vehicle Enforcement Unit patrol spotted a rental truck travelling towards Adelaide on the South Eastern Freeway at Mount Barker.

An inspection of the truck revealed the truck’s chassis had bent, allegedly due to extreme overloading.

Using portable equipment, police weighed the truck on site, and it will be alleged the truck was more than 13.9 tonnes over its permissible gross vehicle mass.

An inspection of the load also revealed no measures had been taken to sufficiently restrain the cargo, consisting of building products.

The driver, a 35-year-old Gilles Plains man, was reported for severe risk breach over mass and severe risk breach of load restraint.

The passenger, a 30-year-old Gilles Plains man, who was identified as the owner of the building products, was reported for chain of responsibility offences relating to causing and permitting the breaches.

The truck was defected due to damage caused to the brakes, suspension and chassis and the driver issued a direction not to move it.

The rental truck was so badly damaged it could not safely be used on the roads and had to be towed away.

The men will be summonsed to appear in court at a later date.