Haulier fined after wash bay accident
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R&J Milne fined £20,000 after a driver was run over by a tractor unit and severely injured
By Roger Brown
ABERDEENSHIRE haulier R&J Milne has been ined £20,000 after a driver was severely injured when he was knocked to the ground and run over by a truck in the irm’s wash bay area.
In a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecution, Banff Sheriff Court was told how Ian Mackie, 43, was one of ive drivers who had cleaned the tractor unit at the irm’s yard in Ardmiddle, Turriff in November 2010. He was talking to a colleague near the front of the vehicle, when the driver of the lorry climbed into his cab, started the vehicle and began to pull out of the wash bay. The vehicle struck Mackie, who fell into his colleague, as it turned left out of the bay.
Both men were knocked to the ground and one of the front wheels of the tractor unit drove over Mackie’s right foot and leg. Another driver raised the alarm and the tractor unit was reversed off Mackie.
He suffered severe injuries, including the removal of the soft tissue of his leg, an open wound and broken bones in his foot, a fractured pelvis and cracked ribs. Mackie was in hospital for 13 weeks and had a metal plate inserted into his pelvis and a skin graft on his leg.
He returned to work in April 2011 but has permanent scars along the length of his leg and hip and still suffers bad circulation, numbness and pain.
The second employee who was knocked over during the incident escaped physical injury.
Banff Sheriff Court heard that an HSE investigation into the incident found there was no organised system to control vehicle movements in the yard around the wash bay area to segregate pedestrians from moving vehicles.
There was a health and safety manual, prepared by external consultants, which included various entries that purported to be risk assessments dealing with transport issues.
However, the court was told how these largely took the form of various high-level statements, which did not in any way amount to a suitable and suficient assessment of the risks involved in manoeuvring vehicles around the site.
R&J Milne pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
HSE inspector Joanne Nicholls said: “The risks associated with workplace transport are well known, and R&J Milne should have carried out a suitable and suficient risk assessment to identify appropriate safety measures.
“A safe system of work would have ensured that if pedestrians were present, vehicles would not be allowed to enter or move in the same area.”
Needless risk
The company could have put in place specific pedestrian zones, stop boards in front of lorries and a key safe system. As no such measures had been identified or implemented, two men’s lives were needlessly put at risk.