THE company which left a skip badly lit on a York road the night two teenagers died in a car accident has been fined £750, plus £30 costs.

UK Waste Management Ltd, of Escrick, near York, pleaded guilty to breaking highway regulations at York Magistrates Court yesterday.

Jane Evans, prosecuting, said the lack of lighting on the skip had been investigated following the deaths of teenagers Christopher Loft, 17, and Sean Smith, 18, in a road accident in New Lane, Huntington, near York.

Christopher Loft had been driving a Vauxhall Astra car when he lost control and crashed into a wall in the early hours of May 11. Skid marks had been found on the road near to the skip, but police investigators had concluded the skip was not the cause of the accident and would not have been a problem for a car going at a normal speed.

However, she said UK Management was responsible for keeping the skip lit at night under the terms of a permit obtained from the City of York Council.

The skip only had three lights on instead of the required four, and only one of them was working.

Jonathan Mortimer, mitigating, said the skip had been hired to a firm called Direct Home Improvements and usually when firms hired skips from UK Waste Management they signed a delivery note agreeing to comply with conditions about lighting.

"The difficulty we have is when the driver arrived to deliver this skip, no one was there from Direct Home Improvements and no one signed a delivery note - that is why we have pleaded guilty."

UK Waste Management staff had been told to ensure cones and lights were put out when skips were first hired out and that delivery notes were signed, he said.

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