Careless parking
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• Truck drivers are being crushed by articulated vehicles which move while being reconnected to trailers. A joint survey by London boroughs and health inspectors has revealed that 38% of London's trailers are parked without being properly braked.
Four north London drivers have died in accidents in recent years which happened while semi-trailers were being connected to tractors when the brakes had not been fully applied. In Ealing a driver was crushed against a wall — in another case a driver who was walking by was killed.
The survey was sparked off by a Health and Safety Executive presentation to the London Borough of Harrow, which subsequently persuaded most of London's boroughs to check parking standards in depots and trailer parks.
The results reveal "accidents waiting to happen", according to Andrew Appleby, Harrow group environmental health officer, who says that one health inspector visiting a depot found someone running around applying the trailer ratchet brakes.
Appleby says the accidents happen when a driver reconnecting a tractor unit re-inserts the red air hose, causing the safety brakes to lift off. If, at this point, the trailer ratchet brake and the cab handbrake are not applied, the vehicle can move.
"The vehicle can roll away on a gradient no steeper than that required for draining water," says Appleby, who blames many of the accidents on driver carelessness through being in a hurry to get back into their cabs. But, he adds, some accidents are the fault of the previous person who parked the trailer.
"Employers need to have a much greater awareness of their responsibilies for training," he says. "Companies often see