A haulage firm involved in the death of a young Highland woman and two other serious road incidents has been shut down by a transport authority.
Beauty consultant Christina Fraser, 24, died after a 30-ton vehicle rolled off a Munro & Sons (Highland) Ltd low-loader and crushed the car in which she was a passenger on the A9 Inverness-Thurso road, near Invergordon, in 2006.
Last night, Miss Fraser’s family welcomed the ruling, saying it was no more than the company deserved.
In a damning report, Scotland’s Traffic Commissioner Joan Aitken said the firm, based at Teaninich Industrial Estate, Alness, put “business before safety”.
She said: “The operator’s failings have been responsible for the death of one car passenger and the serious injury of two car drivers.”
She also said there was “a systematic failure within the family business”.
Ms Aitken added: “I balance against what positive scrapings I can make that the negative is overwhelming and that I cannot risk letting this operator continue in goods-vehicle operating. There can be no more victims.”
She presided over a public inquiry in March which heard that 27 prohibitions had been issued against the firm by traffic inspectors for safety defects on vehicles.
Munro operated a fleet of 16 lorries and 11 trailers. As well as withdrawing the operating licence, Ms Aitken disqualified directors David and William Munro from holding a transport operating licence for seven years.
Former director Pamela Munro was also disqualified for two years, while driver Kenneth Finlayson — who was involved in an accident on the A9 Perth-Inverness road, near Slochd, last year, and whose name appeared in a number of prohibitions — had his heavy-goods licence removed for 12 months.
The inquiry heard about five separate occasions when the firm’s vehicle operations were called into question.
The company was fined £30,000 over Miss Fraser’s death after it admitted breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act by failing to provide the driver with adequate load-securing equipment and carrying excess weight on the vehicle.
The inquiry also heard that, in February 2007, a skip became partially detached from a trailer on Nigg roundabout, on the A9 Inverness-Thurso road.
On January 15 last year, a Vehicle and Operator Services Agency check of a lorry at Seafield Road, Inverness, found one of two skips was not secured to the vehicle, and in October, at Craigforth, Stirling, a tyre on a lorry was found to be worn.
In November, Highland Council roads boss Ian Wallace received head and leg injuries when his car was hit by a trailer which had become detached from a lorry on the A9 Inverness-Perth road, near Slochd.
Ms Aitken said: “Clearly, my orders will have significant impacts on the business, including perhaps job losses, and steps will have to be taken to adjust the operation of the wider business.
“Disqualified operators often seek to re-emerge in other corporate form. I warn other operators and persons to be very wary of providing a front for continued operation by Messrs Munro.”
The traffic commissioner’s decision was welcomed last night by Miss Fraser’s parents, Hugh and Linda, but they said no outcome could compensate for the death of their daughter.
Mrs Fraser, of Argyle Court, Tain, said: “To me the outcome looks good and is no more than those men deserve.
“It’s all very upsetting having it all brought up again. After all is said and done nothing is ever going to bring Christina back.”
Mr Fraser said Ms Aitken got the decision “100% right”. “The whole family feel it’s the best decision. It’s ridiculous the company lasted so long without having its licence revoked. Even after Christina’s death there were a catalogue of errors. They were a loose canon on the roads. At least now the roads are safer.”
No one at Munro was available to comment.