A Cheshire-based transport company has been fined £500,000 after an Hull employee suffered horrific injuries when she was crushed between two lorries.
Warwick Crown Court heard (16 Mar) that Jennifer Rose was lucky to be alive after the incident at Tip Trailer Services’ Griff Lane depot in Nuneaton on 9 April 2013.
Mrs Rose, 38, who now lives in Hull, broke 13 bones in her back, shoulders and ribs, and punctured a lung. The incident left her with severe head injuries, impaired vision and she required a tracheotomy. She suffered a cardiac arrest and was in intensive care for ten days.
Mrs Rose, who has a young son, needed to wear a body brace for four months and was confined to a wheelchair for some months although has since regained some mobility. She still requires weekly physiotherapy.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found Mrs Rose was acting as a banksman, assisting a lorry driver to reverse park on a slope, at the time of the incident. The driver decoupled his trailer without engaging its parking brake, causing it to roll back and trap her between the two vehicles.
The investigation found TIP Trailer Services regularly allowed vehicles to park on a slope without the provision of chocks or similar devices. The company had no monitoring system to check whether drivers were applying their handbrakes properly.
The slope ended on a public road, so the risks were not just to pedestrians on site but also to passing pedestrians and drivers.
TIP Europe Ltd, of Market Street, Altrincham, Cheshire, trading as Tip Trailer Services, pleaded guilty to two breaches of Sections 2 and 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, and was fined a total of £500,000 and ordered to pay a further £56,938 in costs.
Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Elizabeth Hornsby said:
“Mrs Rose suffered severe life-changing injuries. Her family was told she would not survive the night but due to her level of physical fitness and her sheer determination she has fought back and is now on the road to recovery.
“It was common practice for drivers to park on a slope within the compound, which should never have been allowed as it was inevitable that sooner or later a driver would fail to put on their handbrake. This totally avoidable incident could and should have been prevented with nothing more than common sense.”
Information and guidance on how to manage the risks associated with workplace transport is available at www.hse.gov.uk/toolbox/transport.htm
Numerous serious and fatal incidents occur in the workplace involving collisions with pedestrians. Larger vehicles and fork lift truck have more blind spots than a car for instance. Larger vehicles have very large blind spots all around the vehicle. Fork lift trucks with a load on may have a very large blind spot at the front.
Workplace transport is a well known safety issue, particularly if large vehicles or fork lift trucks are used in a work place, safeguards expected by various approved codes of practice and health and safety guidance:
- A risk assessment of workplace transport should be completed and appropriate safeguards implemented using a combination of the following control measures.
- Adequate pedestrian/ vehicle segregation by using a combination of: barriers, fencing, signage, marked pedestrian routes and separate vehicle/ pedestrian exits.
- Avoid reversing of any vehicles, if at all possible by using one ways systems or other practical means.
- If reversing is not avoidable and trained/ competent reversing assistant or banksman is required.
- High visibility clothing and appropriate lighting should be in place when appropriate.
- All drivers must be appropriately trained and appropriate refresher training should be completed at least every 3-5 years.
- Pedestrians should be excluded from higher risk areas.
- Amber beacons and reversing alarms should be used on vehicles which are expected to reverse.
- Appropriate speed limits should be in place.
- All safety measures must be monitored and enforced by supervisors and management (company drivers and visiting drivers must be considered).
Company sentenced after worker loses fingers
A leading international aluminium fabricator has been fined after a worker severed two fingers when his left hand was trapped in the loading clamps of an aluminium metal extrusion machine.
The 41-year-old from Tibshelf, Derbyshire, who does not want to be named, lost the end of his little finger and his ring finger to his second joint, as well as suffering burns, following the incident at Sapa Profiles UK on 18 March 2014.
He was off work for eight months, after which he returned to the company in a different role.
Chesterfield Magistrates’ Court heard today (18 March) that the man was working to unblock a machine that pushes out aluminium to produce a manufactured piece. Solid aluminium is fed into the machine and heated to around 450 degrees, to soften it, so it can be extruded into a die, which will create the final item.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the interlocks on the machine, did not fully isolate the power when opened.
Access inside the press was required by employees to remove blockages from two points in the machine where they commonly occurred. This was a two person job.
On the 18 March 2014, the injured person and another person entered the machine to remove one of these blockages. They accessed the machine through separate gates. The second person left the machine, closing his gate, leaving the injured person inside with his gate open. Unfortunately, having only the one gate open didn’t fully isolate the machine.
So when the machine was restarted it allowed the loading clamps to operate whilst the injured person was inside the danger zone. His hand was trapped, resulting in contact burns and serious finger injuries.
The company had failed to carry out a risk assessment to the machine prior to making these crucial changes.
Sapa Profiles UK Ltd, of Mansfield Road, Tibshelf, was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay £1,784.50 in costs and a £120 victim surcharge, after pleading guilty to breaching regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.
After sentencing, HSE inspector Lindsay Bentley said: “Sapa Profiles UK Ltd allowed access to the dangerous parts of the press, including the loading arms and clamps that injured the worker.
“Furthermore, the company’s risk assessment was not suitable and sufficient to ensure that the relevant dangerous parts of the Press would stop before a person entered the Press. Following the incident it took just 10 minutes for these interlocks to be reprogrammed.
“It should not have been possible to access a danger zone without the machine being safely isolated. It meant operators who had to frequently unblock the machine were routinely exposed to unnecessary risk. ”