£360 damages after 'flimsy wedge' fails
Page 20
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• Charles Rankin of Edinburgh has been awarded damages of £.360 against Miller and Co of Edinburgh following an accident arising from shifting of a load carried on a vehicle of which Rankin was the driver.
Sheriff Neil MacVicar QC ruled that a system of loading heavy metal rollers which has worked well for years had been demonstrated to contain a serious weakness which no one had suspected. The employing company owed a duty to the lorry driver to provide a reasonably safe system of securing the load; two rollers, each weighing around 7 tons, were placed sideways on the articulated lorry by employees of the manufacturing company. Each was on a wooden
cradle and a joiner hailed four wooden wedges at each end of the rollers. When the lorry driver was obliged to apply his brakes rather sharply the heavier of the two rollers slid forward dislodging the wedge and moving into the cab of the lorry.
The Sheriff described the wedge as a "somewhat flimsy device" on which to rely and said that when the inertia of the roller had been overcome to a sufficient extent to dislodge one wedge it was likely by its weight and smoothness to' act as a potentially lethal weapon, and it was only by a matter of inches that the driver escaped more serious and possible fatal injuries.