Revellers take dumper truck after night out

May 7 2008 by Neil Mckay, The Journal

TWO men seeking a lift home after a night out took matters into their own hands – by commandeering a nine- tonne dumper truck.

The hapless duo broke into a compound next to Durham Johnston School in Neville’s Cross, got into the truck, started it up and smashed through two perimeter fences on to the A167 Durham to Darlington road.

They proceeded to drive at speeds of up to 20 miles an hour along narrow country lanes through sleeping villages early on Sunday.

Their route took them five miles through Bearpark, Ushaw Moor and New Brancepeth, before police were alerted by a passing taxi driver.

He contacted the emergency services in alarm after seeing the truck being driven erratically and without any lights on.

A crew in a marked police car came across the truck being driven along a narrow road called Pit Lane which skirts Brandon Village, to the west of Durham city centre.

The dumper truck driver, thinking the police car was a passing taxi, obligingly pulled over to let it pass.

When he realised his mistake, he fled the scene but later surrendered to police. His passenger was arrested on the spot.

Both men from the Crook area, in which direction they were heading, were taken into custody and charged with aggravated vehicle taking.

The driver has also been charged with dangerous driving.

The pair, in their 20s, are due to appear before Consett magistrates later this month.

The truck was on the site at Durham Johnston where work is ongoing to build a new £25m campus, due to be completed next year.

The 1,450-pupil school is currently divided over two sites several miles apart, a legacy from the merger between a grammar school and two secondary modern schools in 1979.

The new school is being built on the upper school site at Crossgate Moor near Neville’s Cross.