Warning: bolts left off cab
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IN A Perth firm's drivers were given inadequate warning that the bolts securing a lorry cab were not in place, Sheriff John McInnes has ruled.
A lorry driver's death in an accident was blamed on two missing bolts and poor safety precautions.
The Sheriffs findings were given at a fatal accident inquiry in Perth into the death of 61year-old John McKinnon. He died when the unsecured cab in his lorry toppled forward after he braked near the entrance to a quarry.
The driver was trapped by the cab and died of traumatic asphyxia. McKinnon was employed by J. A. Duncan (Burnthill) Ltd.
On the day of the accident he was driving a lorry which had earlier been in for repairs. With the exception of the replacement of a tachograph casing and the replacement of the two cab-securing bolts, these had been cornpleted.
The bolts had been placed on the steps leading to the cab on each side to warn any person entering the cab that they were not in place.
Later, another driver noticed one of the bolts on the cab step and put it on the floor of the cab, near the clutch and footbrake.
McKinnon subsequently drove the lorry, and about 9.10ant was trapped and died when the cab toppled because the bolts were not in place when he applied the brakes.