Vehicles in the workplace can pose deadly threats to your employees. This can be seen when looking at one of the prosecution cases brought by the Health and Safety Executive this week. A company was fined after one of their employees was hit by a heavy goods vehicle at work. The firm, Corrugated Case Company Ltd were found to be responsible for the accident that occurred in December 2010.

55 year old employee, Pete Newsum was walking back on site after his lunch break. The weather was bad which had meant there were many delays in goods being brought onto site. Therefore on the day of the incident there were many vehicles on site and so the whole place was congested.

Mr Newsum was walking by the kerb waiting for one of the vehicles to finish reversing off the site. Once the vehicle had passed him he assumed it would continue to reverse so he left the kerb only to be hit by the HGV. The driver had stopped reversing and moved forward hitting Mr Newsum and dragging him under the lorry.  It wasn’t until a member of the public saw the yellow high visibility jacket under the HGV that the alarm was raised and the driver stopped.

Life Changing Injuries

Mr Newsum suffered serious injuries to his spine, his pelvis was fractured and so were his ribs and his leg. He had an injured shoulder and also many cuts to his head. The worker had to be resuscitated in hospital two times and he is still not back to good health. Since the accident he now suffers with post traumatic epilepsy, difficulty manoeuvring and breathing problems.  It still isn’t certain if he will ever be able to return to his job as a fork lift driver, and as yet he still hasn’t been able to start work of any kind.

Warnings and Solutions Were Offered to the Firm Prior to the Accident

The Corrugated Case Company was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive. The firm had been investigated six months before the incident and they were then advised on how to take control of the transport being used on site in order to reduce the risks of accidents. The director of the company and the health and safety manager agreed to bring in the suggestions made by the HSE, but they were never implemented. The result was one of their employees being very seriously injured.

The company acknowledged breaching section 17(1) of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations. They also pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. The company were fined £8,000 with an additional £7,435 in court costs.

If you have not implemented effective management of vehicles on your site you could be breaking the law. Talk to health and safety consultants to discuss your concerns and find health and safety services to help you resolve problems and prevent anyone from getting hurt. There are many health and safety services designed for the construction industry. Call 0800 1488 677 to find out which service is right for you.

About David Cant

David Cant is a Chartered Safety and Health Practitioner extraordinaire. He has a wealth of Industry experience and is the MD of Veritas Consulting. David also Blogs about Health and Safety here Health and Safety Consultants

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