Death of driver struck by his own HGV

AN inquest has opened into the death of an HGV driver killed when he was struck by his own lorry in Derbyshire.

Derby and South Derbyshire Coroner’s Court heard how Gary Walters, 51, was coupling the cab and trailer of his lorry at Bison Manufacturing Ltd, in William Nadin Way, Swadlincote, at around 7am on Monday.

Giving evidence in court PC Darren Parkin, said: "We understand Mr Walters was standing between the cab and trailer, which contained concrete products, when they began to roll forward.

“We believe he got down and ran around the front of the trailer, and he was struck by the lorry and was dragged underneath it.”

The court heard how Mr Walters, who was married and is from Wallingford, in Oxfordshire, was airlifted to hospital in Coventry; he was certified dead at 8.40am.

His body was identified the following day by his brother, Mark Walters, of High Wycombe.

A spokesman for the Health and Safety Executive said he was aware of the incident. Police and the executive are working with the company to determine the cause.

Louise Pinder, deputy coroner, adjourned the inquest pending investigation.

LINK

thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/ … ticle.html

Thats 2 in two months after the one at Corus in Scunthorpe recently.

Very sad and probably preventable. Poor guy.

Looks like he forgot to put the handbrake on and it started to move away when he connected the red airline, a mistake I have myself made in the past…there but for the grace of God…

Condolences to friends and family.

Harry Monk:
Looks like he forgot to put the handbrake on and it started to move away when he connected the red airline, a mistake I have myself made in the past…there but for the grace of God…

Condolences to friends and family.

I join you in offering my condolences, like many others will I’m sure.

I too have done it, many of us have, and it will keep happpening, but as in the various posts on here where we laugh at our mistakes, we were lucky, that’s why I always comment on those threads, I always mention that the thing to do when it happens is to pull the red line off, hopefully it sinks in, as it’s the best thing to do in a bad situation and we can avoid any more cases like this one.

RIP driver :wink:

very sad and all too easy to do yourself.
i guess its a mistake you only make once.

newmercman:

Harry Monk:
Looks like he forgot to put the handbrake on and it started to move away when he connected the red airline, a mistake I have myself made in the past…there but for the grace of God…

Condolences to friends and family.

I join you in offering my condolences, like many others will I’m sure.

I too have done it, many of us have, and it will keep happpening, but as in the various posts on here where we laugh at our mistakes, we were lucky, that’s why I always comment on those threads, I always mention that the thing to do when it happens is to pull the red line off, hopefully it sinks in, as it’s the best thing to do in a bad situation and we can avoid any more cases like this one.

RIP driver :wink:

Pulling that airline off when it rolls or if you’re in doubt is sound advice, a sticker to that effect on every trailer wouldn’t go amiss would it. We now have warning buzzers in all new vehicles that sound when the door is opened if the handbrake is off.

A very sad situation & my condolences go to all involved.

BB

On our 10 plate Iveco unit at work it has a woman that starts shouting “handbrake not on” if you open the door, then she says “thankyou” when you engage it haha

On our trailers the park brake is on the headboard next to the connectors, much quicker and easier just to pull that if it starts to roll rather than trying to get red line off.

Coffeeholic:
On our trailers the park brake is on the headboard next to the connectors, much quicker and easier just to pull that if it starts to roll rather than trying to get red line off.

I was just going to suggest that as I have seen it quite often, it saves the shunter moaning his ■■■■ off, it makes it one less thing to forget and could save lives.

Another thing I have always said is that if palm couplings are good enough for the rest of Europe, the United States and most of Africa, why does the UK still use C type couplings?

In theory, this should never happen if you hitch up like I was tought. check the trailors security before you even back under and engage the pin.

But as we are humans we get into bad habits and that is what kills unfortunatly.

wheel nut, what are the benifits of palm couplings ■■?

TTX boy:
wheel nut, what are the benifits of palm couplings ■■?

Much easier to pull off in an emergency and they go on much easier especially in confined spaces like fridges and car transporters

corus are in the process of closing trailer parks on some of the bigger sites just because of incidents like this with the first closure this week at lackenby works, there view is if there is no reason to be picking trailers up then there cant be an accident on there site, wether they are worried for drivers welfare or just covering there own backs, who knows

chaversdad:
corus are in the process of closing trailer parks on some of the bigger sites just because of incidents like this with the first closure this week at lackenby works, there view is if there is no reason to be picking trailers up then there cant be an accident on there site, wether they are worried for drivers welfare or just covering there own backs, who knows

That has always been the policy of Corus, to save injury or pollution they stopped making steel.

Seems like the logic the Turks used to use too, blame the foreigner, if they hadn’t been there it wouldn’t have happened!

chaversdad:
wether they are worried for drivers welfare or just covering there own backs, who knows

Me I know :neutral_face: … As for the accident, I know I,ve done stupid things over the years, like my first week on an artic, parking with unit on an angle to trailer, and pulling the pin before winding down legs (■■■■■■■■■ :unamused: ) and seeing trailer coming towards me. A near miss to say least, got a deserved bollocikng and learnt by my mistake.

Wheel Nut:

TTX boy:
wheel nut, what are the benifits of palm couplings ■■?

Much easier to pull off in an emergency and they go on much easier especially in confined spaces like fridges and car transporters[/quote

My views on palm couplings are categorically no!!! most UK hauliers got rid of them in the long distant past for good reason. Yes they are easy to pull
off but as anyone who has worked with then for any time will tell you unless the coupling is exactly vertical when you execute a tight turn it will come
off. Its easy to say the garage should make sure they are always tight but in practice it does’nt happen, in the case of palms it is critical. When I worked
for Onward the maintenance was first class but often if you had an airleak when connecting up you could turn the coupling slightly right and seal the
leak its not rocket science to figure out that before long the coupling is now horizontal .Now try a tight turn and off it comes and if your travelling at
any speed a disaster is in the making. Another problem is trying to get a decent seal if the rubber is worn although you can carry spares (my simple remedy
as I told my son who still has to use them now and then) is to smear them with grease from the fifth wheel .The dirtier the grease the better the seal.

chaversdad:
corus are in the process of closing trailer parks on some of the bigger sites just because of incidents like this with the first closure this week at lackenby works, there view is if there is no reason to be picking trailers up then there cant be an accident on there site, wether they are worried for drivers welfare or just covering there own backs, who knows

This^

kevmac47:

Wheel Nut:

TTX boy:
wheel nut, what are the benifits of palm couplings ■■?

Much easier to pull off in an emergency and they go on much easier especially in confined spaces like fridges and car transporters
[/quote

My views on palm couplings are categorically no!!! most UK hauliers got rid of them in the long distant past for good reason. Yes they are easy to pull
off but as anyone who has worked with then for any time will tell you unless the coupling is exactly vertical when you execute a tight turn it will come
off. Its easy to say the garage should make sure they are always tight but in practice it does’nt happen, in the case of palms it is critical. When I worked
for Onward the maintenance was first class but often if you had an airleak when connecting up you could turn the coupling slightly right and seal the
leak its not rocket science to figure out that before long the coupling is now horizontal .Now try a tight turn and off it comes and if your travelling at
any speed a disaster is in the making. Another problem is trying to get a decent seal if the rubber is worn although you can carry spares (my simple remedy
as I told my son who still has to use them now and then) is to smear them with grease from the fifth wheel .The dirtier the grease the better the seal.

This is where we disagree then. I have used palms constantly for the past 15 years and never had one come off, I never had to grease any palms, well not in that way :stuck_out_tongue:

But I don’t believe they are so dangerous and the UK is the only one who uses them.

Over to Bob and NewMercMan

i had palms fitted on my last job, as i was pulling dutch trailers, i allways put a bit of spit on them before joining them, and carried a spare couple of flanges in case there was a split one on the trailer. When i had 113-143 the cab-end of the airlines (with palms on the other end, pulling dutch trailers again) had taps on, which was handy if you split an air-line, but i dont think you can get away with doing that nowadays

I agree with Kevmac, palm couplings are transparently mechanically inferior and I have had the same problems…when folk say “there’s nothing wrong with them providing you spit on them beforehand”, then there’s something wrong with them.