London waste haulier Quick Skips and Recycling has been fined £20,000 after a driver on his first day in the job sustained life-threatening injuries when he fell from the top of a tipper truck.
In a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecution, Westminster Magistrates’ Court was told how the 40-year-old, who does not wish to be named, had joined Quick Skips and Recycling, based in Ealing in March 2010 and was collecting waste from the Acton facility of Bridgemarts, trading as Gowing & Pursey, for transfer to another site.
After loading the lorry he stopped the vehicle and climbed on top of the tipper unit to check an auto-sheeting device, used to cover the load, that had become jammed.
The man manually freed the jam, but the sheet system sprung back, struck him and sent him crashing more than three metres to the ground below.
He broke two ribs, punctured a lung and developed a blood clot in his head as a result of the fall, and was unconscious in hospital for two weeks.
Quick Skips pleaded guilty to single breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992.
Now as I understand it, the bloke made his own decision to try and sort the problem out but the company are liable for his actions when nor even on their premises. If I decided to climb on my cab roof to grease the top of my Hiab when not in the yard surely my firm could not be accountable if I were to fall off and injure myself.
London waste haulier Quick Skips and Recycling has been fined £20,000 after a driver on his first day in the job sustained life-threatening injuries when he fell from the top of a tipper truck.
In a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecution, Westminster Magistrates’ Court was told how the 40-year-old, who does not wish to be named, had joined Quick Skips and Recycling, based in Ealing in March 2010 and was collecting waste from the Acton facility of Bridgemarts, trading as Gowing & Pursey, for transfer to another site.
After loading the lorry he stopped the vehicle and climbed on top of the tipper unit to check an auto-sheeting device, used to cover the load, that had become jammed.
The man manually freed the jam, but the sheet system sprung back, struck him and sent him crashing more than three metres to the ground below.
He broke two ribs, punctured a lung and developed a blood clot in his head as a result of the fall, and was unconscious in hospital for two weeks.
Quick Skips pleaded guilty to single breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992.
Now as I understand it, the bloke made his own decision to try and sort the problem out but the company are liable for his actions when nor even on their premises.
Seems fair to me. If you’re gonna send people out with equiptment then you need to make sure they know how to use it and what they should do in the event of a fault.
8wheels:
If I decided to climb on my cab roof to grease the top of my Hiab when not in the yard surely my firm could not be accountable if I were to fall off and injure myself.
They would be unless they expressley forbid you to do it. Also if the Hiab needs greasing the proper measures should be in place for it to be greased, not just allowing drivers climbing up on the roof to do it.
We’re banned from getting in the bodies, but being the shower of ■■■■ certain managers are, can’t decide what we should do in these circumstances. Do you risk a fine for insecure load, or risk injury or the sack for getting on the vehicle?
Another example of a no win situation where I work; Deliver a load of topsoil and then go to a quarry for a backload of flint. There’s some soil stuck in, disciplinary for getting in and clearing it, or disciplinary for contaminating your next load?
Don’t bother ringing the TM for advice, he’s probably on the golf course or attending an important conference on reversing cameras and underrun bars…
I don’t have to climb on my cab roof to grease the crane but if I did I could probably reach it
Surely this sort of ■■■■■■■■ means that they should issue a long list of things not to do that come under common sense. Don’t shimmy along the crane jib to reach something just over there. Don’t drive with the cab tilted up. Don’t attempt to actually do any work in case you do something stupid.
It was the drivers first day on the job at the very least he should have had a thorough induction and familiarisation with the equipment he was going to use and the processes to use in common scenarios.
It looks to me, and I don’t know any more than I read in the link, that the company has done very little by way of induction so failed in the duty of care to the driver who was injured.
Before anyone can really decide right or wrong , had the guy had training to tell him what to or not to do in these circumstances?.
Is it ok to send an inexperienced driver out with the vehicle and no training?. ( if thats what happened)
I drove a mortar mixer once I was given NO training I was given all the PPE and a toolkit, but thats it if i had tried to fix a part of it but didnt know what i was fixing, is it safe to say its my fault?.
To be fair we don’t know the whole story. For all we know he rang the office to ask for advice and they told him to jump up and give it a whack.
Although its probably lack of training they have done them for
Muckaway:
We’re banned from getting in the bodies, but being the shower of [zb] certain managers are, can’t decide what we should do in these circumstances. Do you risk a fine for insecure load, or risk injury or the sack for getting on the vehicle?
Another example of a no win situation where I work; Deliver a load of topsoil and then go to a quarry for a backload of flint. There’s some soil stuck in, disciplinary for getting in and clearing it, or disciplinary for contaminating your next load?
Don’t bother ringing the TM for advice, he’s probably on the golf course or attending an important conference on reversing cameras and underrun bars…
Do’nt you just know it! there must be a training course that all these managers go on, no matter what firm they work for it’s called [zb] rolls down hill (to the driver most times)
Do feel quite sorry for the driver but obviously you must use common sense if you going to attempt to fix a problem yourself.
If you look at it from the drivers point of view he’s got two options either fix what is probably a simple problem quickly and be on his way or call the office on your first day and possibly look like abit of an idiot. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, its easy to say after the event what he should of done.
For all we know he could of had a load on that couldnt get wet so he mite of been in the shed with a load of trucks waiting behind him to get loaded and felt under pressure to get moving.
i remember a HIAB job a did some years ago. when i saw the truck i phoned the agency and confirmed that i was on a class 2 job and i could not operate the HIAB. yes, thats fine, you wont be using it. ok!
turned up at a building site and their FLT was broken so they asked me to tip with the HIAB and i refused so they phoned the client and told them i was refusing to deliver the load. i informed them that i refused to deliver it with the HIAB but had no problem in waiting for their FLT to be fixed so they could tip the truck. in if doubt, choose the safest option
Muckaway:
We’re banned from getting in the bodies, but being the shower of [zb] certain managers are, can’t decide what we should do in these circumstances. Do you risk a fine for insecure load, or risk injury or the sack for getting on the vehicle?
Another example of a no win situation where I work; Deliver a load of topsoil and then go to a quarry for a backload of flint. There’s some soil stuck in, disciplinary for getting in and clearing it, or disciplinary for contaminating your next load?
This is a problem I used to regularly encounter. I just used to stop in a layby before i went into the quarry and clean it out with a shovel there. As long as nobody sees you your ok but it is a faff and if you fell then there would be nobody to help you…
