FATAL...THESE UNTRAINED DRIVERS IN FACTORIES
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By our Industrial Correspondent THERE are strong arguments for really thorough training and for a management system for testing and authorizing drivers of internal factory transport vehicles. Mr. R. K. Christy, HM Chief Inspector of Factories puts forward this view in his annual report.* "The total of 38 deaths associated with road vehicles and internal works transport is minute in comparison with the total of fatalities on the public highway," he reports.
"The movement of vehicles within a works, however, is, or should be, wholly under the control of management: speed limits can be enforced, drivers can be properly trained and the incompetent eliminated, and vehicles can be properly maintained."
Ten of the fatalities resulted from vehicles overturning, four from collisions between vehicles, 113 from collisions between a vehicle and a fixed structure and 11 from people being run over.
In 1939, 19 people died in factory transport accidents.
In the construction industry, 40 out of the 288 deaths come under the category of transport.
"Of the 40 deaths associated with vehicles, 23 were cases of men being knocked down, run over or trapped against a fixed structure, and seven followed the overturning of the vehicle in an excavation. Three other deaths resulted from decisions to take a short cut instead of using the means of access provided."
The Annual Report of the Chief Inspector of Factories published on Tuesday by HMSO, price 12s 6d.