International firm fined £35,000 after worker is thrown from vehicle

Published: HSE, December 2009

A worldwide courier company that has more than 600 vehicles and 25 depots in the UK has been fined £35,000 after a worker broke his leg at a distribution centre in Bedfordshire.

The company was also ordered to pay £5,134 in costs at Bedfordshire Magistrates' Court after it admitted breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

The incident happened in March 2008, when a porter was nearing the end of his night shift at the company's depot. Part of his job involved unloading the HGVs that brought parcels to the distribution centre, sorting the parcels ready for local delivery and then loading them onto the firm's smaller delivery lorries.

The incoming and outgoing vehicles were reverse parked in loading bays, connected to the sorting centre by manual loading ramps.

The court heard that the employee was still in the back of one of the smaller lorries when the driver unexpectedly pulled away from the loading dock. He fell from the rear of the vehicle, from a height of about four feet, and fractured his thigh bone when he landed on the ground.

HSE Inspector Graham Tompkins said:

"A man suffered a serious break to his leg in this incident which should never have happened. The company was aware that someone could be inside the back of a vehicle when it drove off and had produced a risk assessment to be issued to new drivers with their employment contracts. However in this case the driver had not received a contract and had not seen the risk assessment.

"There had been several other similar incidents at the depot, including one under investigation at the time of the porter’s injury. On that occasion an Improvement Notice had been issued, ordering the company to review its arrangements for the control of the risks associated with vehicle movements.

"Reasonable practical measures the company could have put in place would have included a simple control system to prevent the driver from pulling away from the loading bay, such as a key cabinet with restricted access or giving the keys to the porter until loading was complete."

Notes to editors

1. HSE is Britain's national regulator for workplace safety and health. It aims to reduce injuries and illness in the workplace.
2. 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."

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