Bath fatal crash tipper truck 'had serious brake defects' Published duration 22 November 2016

image caption Clockwise from top left: Mitzi Steady, Phil Allen, Stephen Vaughan and Robert Parker were all killed in the crash on 9 February

A tipper truck which killed four people when its brakes failed had clocked up almost 450,000 miles (724,000km), the driver's trial has heard.

Mitzi Steady, four, Robert Parker, 59, Philip Allen, 52, and Stephen Vaughan, 34, died in the crash in Bath in February 2015.

Bristol Crown Court heard the truck was an "accident waiting to happen".

Driver Phillip Potter, 20, denies causing the deaths by dangerous and careless driving.

His boss Matthew Gordon also denies 14 offences while the truck company's mechanic Peter Wood denies four charges.

Mr Potter and Mr Gordon were driving two trucks carrying 30-tonne loads from a Wiltshire quarry on 9 February, the court heard.

'Absolute devastation'

Mr Gordon, who was driving in front of Mr Potter, stopped his truck on Lansdown Lane in Weston village but Mr Potter's brakes failed and he had to swerve to avoid a collision, the court heard.

The truck hit several pedestrians including Mitzi and her grandmother Margaret Rogers and a car containing Mr Allen and Mr Vaughan, both from Swansea, and Mr Parker, from Cwmbran, south Wales.

Prosecutor Adam Vaitilingam QC said: "(Mr Potter's) lorry continued to career down Lansdown Lane out of control.

"It caused absolute devastation.

image copyright Ben Birchall/PA Wire image caption The truck had done almost 450,000 miles (724,000km)

"By the time it finally came to a stop, four people had suffered fatal injuries - a four-year-old girl who had been crossing the road with her grandmother and three men who had been travelling together in the same car."

'Shambles'

Mr Vaitilingam called Mr Potter "an inexperienced driver who had only been in the company for a matter of days".

He said Mr Gordon's firm, Grittenham Haulage Limited, was set up in December 2013 and was "a shambles from start to finish" with no transport manager in place at the time of the crash.

The firm did not carry out the recommended brake efficiency tests on the vehicle, which was "an accident waiting to happen," he said.

Mechanic Peter Wood was employed to carry out inspections on the trucks.

The final safety check on the vehicle was in January 2015, weeks before the crash, when he deemed it safe to drive, the court heard.

'Serious long-standing defects'

Mr Vaitilingam said: "If Mr Wood did carry out a safety inspection that day it was wholly inadequate.

"On the date of the crash the lorry had serious and long standing defects with its braking system, meaning that it was and had been for some time in a dangerous condition.

"This sort of catastrophic brake failure doesn't just happen through bad luck."

image copyright PA image caption Workers remove debris at the crash site on Lansdown Lane, Bath, where the crash happened.

Mr Potter, of Dauntsey, Wiltshire, is also charged with causing serious injuries to Karla Brennan and Margaret Rogers - Mitzi's grandmother - by dangerous driving.

He denies a total of 10 charges against him.

Mr Gordon, 30, also of Dauntsey, denies 14 charges against him.

Mr Wood, 55, from Brinkworth, Wiltshire denies the four charges against him.