$1.2 million speed fine shines light on bosses' responsibility
A Sydney trucking company will pay for years of dodgy operations in the form of nearly 200 fines.
Zaens, trading as Lennons Transport Services, has been fined more than $1.2 million for its offences.
The company pleaded guilty to 172 offences, and Zaens company director Tony Lennon pleaded guilty to 20.
The fines were laid after courts found that Lennons’ trucks repeatedly exceeded the speed limit between February 2011 and March 2012.
The Downing Centre Local Court heard claims that the company recorded three of its speeding offences since a fatal incident in 2012.
Three people were killed when one of the trucks careened onto the wrong side of the Hume Highway and hit a car in January 2012.
The court has now found that the company's trucks repeatedly sped due to a failure to ensure drivers were abiding by the limits.
“Zaens did not make management responsible for speeding” apart from during a drivers’ induction process, the court found.
“Numerous offences occurred because of a failure of Zaens to design a system to ensure compliance with the law.”
There was no evidence that management was checking average speeds on logs and no evidence of standard route times on one run.
In a letter to the court last month, Mr Lennon claimed his mere presence at the business would deter speeding.
The court rejected that, saying that as director of the company he was personally responsible, and his own actions were “close to the worst case”.
Mr Lennon was fined more than $80,000, reportedly walking out of the court while the magistrate was reading out her decision.