HSE at a loss as death toll doubles at depots
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by Lee Kitnber • Trucks crushed more workers to death last year than at any time in the past five years, with seven employees and one passer-by falling victim to workplace accidents.
Health & Safety Executive officials are at a loss to explain why the number of fatal crush incidents involving lorries rose to four between April 1995 and April 1996. Nor do they know why the number of moving vehicle-related deaths—which includes forklift and van accidents—rose from two in 1994/95 to eight in 1995/96.
The figures, which were released last week, are made more disturbing by the fact that total deaths in all service industry workplaces fell for the fifth consecutive year to 26 in 1995/96, compared with 33 in 1994/96.
"I find such figures deplorable." says Health & Safety Commission chairman Frank Davies. "The hazards associated with moving vehicles are well known and all of these deaths could easily have been prevented."
Trucks crushed three employees and one member of the public to death in the survey period; forklifts killed three employees, and vans one employee.
The HSE says there is no single reason for the number of truck related deaths to rise: cheap and simple remedies such as watchfulness and help from colleagues could have prevented them all.
It adds that hauliers should make sure their drivers are trained, and that they set up a safe system of working—as detailed in its 1995 report, Workplace Transport Safety: Guidance for Employers.
The figures come just a month after an inquest jury returned a verdict of accidental death on Graham Denwood, a Tesco store worker crushed in the Whitehaven store's loading bay by a reversing Wincanton lorry. His death is not included in the latest HSE figures.
Tesco has since installed traffic lights in its loading bays.