HSE calls for careful driving in depots

Published: HSE, February 2010

Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is warning both employers and drivers about the consequences of not taking reasonable care for the safety of others after a council employee was killed.

The Council was fined £30,000 and ordered to pay £20,000 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act.

A council employee and the driver of the vehicle, pleaded guilty to two breaches of Section 7 of the Health and Safety at Work Act and was fined £750 and ordered to pay £500 in costs.

The man killed was a council employee who was described as a well-liked professional manager. He was struck and killed by a wheeled shovel loader, driven by the employee on October 2006. Wolverhampton Court heard how he drove against the direction of the site's one-way system and had the loading shovel at a height that meant he couldn't see in front properly. He also didn't take suitable precautions to make sure he didn't damage any other vehicles or harm pedestrians.

The victim had been wearing a high visibility jacket and was facing the oncoming traffic in the yard when he was hit in the upper back by the blade of the wheeled loader shovel's bucket. Other employees tried to warn him and divert the driver, but the vehicle did not stop until after the front wheel had run him over.

HSE inspector David Price said:

"This was a terrible incident that could so easily have been prevented. His untimely death has brought great grief to his family, and to many of his work colleagues.

"Depots and loading yards are potentially dangerous places, with vehicles often required to manoeuvre in tight or enclosed spaces. Employers need to provide set routes, to keep pedestrians and vehicles safely apart. They also need to check their site rules and systems of work are both appropriate and adequately enforced.

"Drivers need to obey signs and instructions in workplaces, just as closely as they would obey them on a public highway. In driving at over 8mph against the one-way system, with the unnecessarily raised bucket obscuring much of his view through the windscreen, the employee failed to take reasonable care for the health and safety of his colleague."

Notes to editors

• Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states: 'It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees.'
• Section 7(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states: 'It shall be the duty of every employee while at work...to take reasonable care for the health and safety of himself and of other persons who may be affected by his acts or omissions at work.'

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