£1,100 for fatal slide
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• Heavy haulier GCS Johnson has been fined £1,100 after a bulldozer carried on one of its low-loaders broke loose and crushed a pedestrian to death. The driver had braked suddenly at traffic lights.
The Skeeby-based firm pleaded guilty to using the vehicle with an insecure load and defective brakes following the incident last August in which clerk Denise Higgins was killed instantly.
Hull magistrates heard that the bulldozer had been secured with four chains and tensions and was chocked under its tracks. But after the accident, investigators discovered that securing equipment was worn or broken. An air line was also broken and a vehicle examiner found low braking efficiency.
For the company Jonathan Lawton said managers totally denied there had been any problems with the chains and tensioners. He said the accident happened because the driver had failed to apply the transverse wooden chocks correctly under the tracks of the machine.