On 15th October, Biffa was fined £2.48 million after a worker was run over by a reversing skip wagon at a waste transfer station in Bradford. This followed July’s conviction of Bestway Northern Limited, which was fined £1 million after a worker was killed by a reversing HGV during a delivery in Manchester.
These penalties provide a clear reflection of how seriously sentencing courts regard organisations that fail to manage the movement of vehicles at work and cause death or serious injury.
The reality is that instances of being struck by a moving vehicle account for 16% of all fatal work-related injuries, representing an average of 21 lives lost for each of the last five years, a leading cause of work-related deaths in Great Britain.
How are organisations getting things wrong?
Many of these incidents share similar failings: pedestrians and vehicles sharing space, broken reversing aids, and straightforward errors in traffic management. In some cases, a total absence of designated pedestrian walkways or a failure to have a banksman present to guide drivers were critical causative factors. In others, you read of broken reversing cameras and alarms, or existing safe working procedures being ignored or over-ridden in the rush to meet delivery or loading schedules.
What would be regarded by both HSE and the courts as basic, standard control measures to address risks arising from workplace vehicle movements are well known and easily accessible – put simply, it’s the courts’ view that there is no excuse for failing to implement such controls.
In its press release to highlight this issue, John Rowe, Deputy Director for Technical Support and Engagement at the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) stated:
“What strikes me most about these cases is not the complexity of the failures, but their simplicity,”
“Time and again, we see deaths that could have been prevented by basic measures that cost far less than the fines that are ultimately imposed.”
What do organisations need to do to ensure compliance?
The HSE has well-established and helpful guidance on “workplace transport safety”, which is helpfully summarised in its’ HSE Workplace Transport Checklist.
The checklist sets out headline areas of examination and then asks questions of an organisation to focus on key elements of compliance it needs to consider. An answer of “no” could mean a material breach of legal duties:
- Managing and supervising workplace transport safety
- Site layout and internal traffic routes
- Vehicle movements
- Coupling/uncoupling
- Loading/unloading activities
- Tipping
- Work at height on vehicles
- Vehicle selection and suitability
- Vehicle maintenance
- Driver competence
An organisation must be able to show that all these areas have been considered, risk-assessed, and that controls are in place to manage those risks.
Case law and practical experience would point to segregation and supervision as being critical to focus on.
Safety can be designed into a site:
- Separating people from vehicles wherever possible
- Creating dedicated walkways with physical barriers
- Implementing a one-way system to reduce unnecessary reversing
- Locating specific loading areas away from workers
- Decent quality lighting for drivers
- Clearly visible pedestrian routes
Vehicles need to be properly maintained. Reversing aids would be regarded as essential; CCTV systems, audible alarms and sensors are readily available. Regular vehicle checks should be standard practice, and if a vehicle has defects, it must be taken out of service until it is repaired.
Demonstrably competent and trained workers across the site are key. Drivers must understand specific site risks and feel able to stop work if conditions are not safe. Workers need to understand safe vehicle movement and where they can and can’t go. Finally, management and supervisor teams must routinely challenge and investigate unsafe behaviours whenever they come across them.
What seems clear is that none of the compliance steps set out above will be regarded by courts as anything other than the minimum they would expect. The message is – have a critical look at what you are doing to manage the movement of vehicles at work, use the HSE’s checklist and if you are answering “no” to any of its questions – take urgent action.