Company fined after driver crushed to death
Page 22
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
The victim had not been trained to perform an unloading operation safely.
A MARBLE AND granite manufacturing company has been tined £100,000 after a worker was crushed to death unloading stone slabs from a trailer.
Marble City Ltd (MCL) pleaded guilty to breaching Sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 following the incident at the company's yard in Wandsworth, London, in March 2008.
Driver Gelsomino Pacifico was instructed to park his truck and trailer on a slope in the road, which caused the slabs to lean towards the kerb.
Other MCL employees, Franco Moscelli and Ron Douglas, joined Pacifico in the trailer to unload.
However, six tonnes of slabs that had not been properly restrained toppled and fell, crushing Douglas, who died from his injuries a week later in hospital. Moscelli and Pacifico suffered arm injuries when they
A tragic system failure
The tragic outcome in this case shows what can happen when companies fail to adhere to their established health and safety policies, which, in this Instance, meant checking drivers competence to do a particular type of work. became trapped attempting to catch the slabs.
Directors Gavin and Jamie Waldron each pleaded guilty to two breaches of Section 37 of the act by allowing their company to commit breaches due to their negligence. They were fined £10,000 each.
MCL was also ordered to pay costs of J.:47, 564.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that MCL had operated an unsafe system of work for unloading deliveries to the site for several years.
Failings included not insisting on deliveries being unloaded on flat, level ground and ensuring that the slabs were restrained at all times.
According to the investigation. Gavin Waldron also failed to establish Pacifico's competence or make any effort to brief him on the MCL unloading operation.
It was company poky to only let competent drivers be involved with unloading, but Pacifico was allowed to carry out the work by simply claiming to have years of experience.
Andrew Verrall-Withers, USE inspector. says it would have been "fairly easy" to make the defendant's system of work for unloading slabs of stone "much safer".