Warning to milk float boys following East Lancashire crash (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Warning to milk float boys following East Lancashire crash

10:04am Wednesday 23rd May 2012 in Barrowford

MILKMEN have been warned about allowing helpers to hang off the back of their floats after two boys were seriously hurt in a dawn crash.

Michael John Lamb, 39, was driving his van along Barrowford Road at 5.30am when his vehicle collided with an ambulance.

Three youngsters who had been clinging to the back of the Cab Star milk van were thrown from the vehicle.

Bradley Smith suffered a fractured wrist and was left with a piece of glass embedded in his leg, Burnley magistrates heard.

And Liam Smith was left with a large cut to the side of his head, and cuts and bruises over his legs and arms.

He was detained overnight in the Royal Blackburn Hospital.

The third boy, not named in court, escaped with minor injuries.

Lamb, of Wordsworth Avenue, Padiham, admitted using a motor vehicle when the purpose for which it was used involved danger of injury.

He was fined £180 with a £15 victim surcharge and £45 costs.

Magistrates also had three penalty points imposed on his driving licence.

Another charge of driving without due care and attention, which he had denied, was withdrawn.

In a letter to the court, his solicitors Steele, Ford and Newton said that normally he would have had his employees in the cab of his milk van.

But on the day in question, the brother of one of his workers had asked to come along. He wished to offer his ‘sincere apologies’ for the incident and pledged that nothing similar would happen again.

Sgt Gareth Hill, of Colne road traffic policing unit, said: “Common sense would dictate, for any prudent motorist, that the practice of having people hanging of the back of the vehicle is to be discouraged.”

But the sergeant also said that it appeared to be regarded as common practice within the industry.