Articles of interest

Fatal fall while loading wood chips at a sawmill

What happened?
A driver arrived at a sawmill in the afternoon with his walking-floor trailer heavy goods vehicle to load it with wood chips. The sawmill staff finished work for the day and left the site from the front of the building, so did not see the driver or his vehicle again that day.
The following morning staff on their way to work saw the vehicle parked on an estate road adjacent to the site. They found the driver dead in the cab. The evidence suggested that the driver returned to his cab following a fall during sheeting and died of a combination of his injuries and a pre-existing heart condition.
Why did it happen?
Vehicles have to be sheeted to prevent dust blowing out. The trailer was fitted with a manual sheeting system that allowed the sheet to be deployed from ground level, using a nylon webbing pull strap. When the driver was found, the sheet was partially deployed over the load. However, there was no evidence that it had jammed or caught on the load, so no clear indication that the driver had needed to access the top of the trailer to level the load.
The investigation found that the main measures for controlling the risks of work at height during loading and unloading the rigid-wall trailers were in place. These involved using the ground-level-operated sheeting system as the preferred option, but, if not available or it failed to deploy, then using other equipment such as (in order of preference) gantries, harnesses and fall-restraint equipment to safely access the top of the trailer.
Following the accident, further measures were identified to minimise the risks if the sheeting system was not available or failed to deploy. These required improvements in the arrangements made with customers who provided the alternative access equipment, such as ensuring they also provided training in how to use it.
Actions taken
Improved provision of access equipment
• Fall-restraint gantries were installed at the company’s own sites where bulk loading takes place.
• The condition of sheeting equipment on trailers was reviewed and equipment replaced if necessary. More robust pullover straps with locking clips were also issued.
• Fall-restraint gantries were installed at the company’s own sites where bulk loading takes place.
• The condition of sheeting equipment on trailers was reviewed and equipment replaced if necessary. More robust pullover straps with locking clips were also issued.
• More effective barriers were provided to minimise the risk of falls from the gantry at the front of trailers, while un-sheeting. All new trailers were supplied with additional safety equipment on the gantries and older trailers reviewed and altered accordingly.
• The specification and ordering of trailers and equipment was improved, taking into account good practice throughout the industry, specifically:
o type of pull over straps;
o number of sheeting straps on trailer;
o type of back doors and locking mechanism;
o type of rear door safety release mechanisms;
o number of roof bars;
o type of rear apex;
o type of gantry and access ladder;
o type of safety gate at top of ladder;
o which side the sheet rolls;type and shape of sheeting system pole;
o model and type of walking-floor mechanism;
o position and alignment of hydraulic pipes;
o location of tool box;
o general assessment of sheeting mechanism.
• The company assessed what access equipment was provided by the sites visited by their drivers. This included finding out what was available and what condition it was in. Following these assessments, they took action to ensure this equipment was either in a suitable condition or updated/changed.
• The need to access the top of the load to level bulked-up loads was removed by using other levelling methods. For example, some sites were provided with access gantries that allowed a driver to level his load with a long-handled rake before sheeting. There were also controls on how much was loaded into the trailer to reduce the need for levelling.
• It was also agreed with the sites that drivers would establish before use that the equipment was in a safe condition, adequately maintained, and that safe systems of work were in place.
Improved training and instruction
• Drivers received training in the safe use of gantries, harnesses and fall-restraint systems.
• If drivers were not able to sheet the load safely from ground level they were given clear instructions on the hierarchy of methods for minimising the risk of a fall.
• Instructions now go out with all new contracts stating that the loading of trucks with light bulky material should not exceed the sides of the trailer unless suitable equipment is available to trim and safely sheet the load without danger to the driver.

Fork Lift Truck Injury

A Burton-on-Trent brewery has been sentenced after a delivery driver was hit by a forklift truck while on site.
Peter Jackson, 64, was at Molson Coors Brewing Company (UK) Ltd's site at Station Street to unload a trailer of empty cans on 20 May 2008.
As he walked along the lines in the canning hall to find a space to deliver his load, he was struck by a forklift truck, which trapped his left leg beneath the forks. His foot and left wrist were both fractured and he has not been able to return to work since the incident.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found the firm had failed to follow previous advice from HSE to devise and implement a safe workplace transport system after an inspector visited the site in December 2007.
Molson Coors, based at High Street, Burton-on-Trent, pleaded guilty to breaching Sections 2 and 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and was fined £31,000 and ordered to pay £33,042 costs by Cannock Magistrates' Court.
After the hearing, HSE inspector Lyn Spooner said:
" This incident occurred because of inadequate risk assessments, poor management and monitoring of contractors, and managers failing to understand their responsibilities for health and safety.
" It was an entirely preventable incident which highlights the importance of companies developing proper health and safety management systems that manage risks in the workplace properly, and communicating these not only to managers, but also to contractors.
" Not only had poor workplace transport arrangements persisted over many years, but Molson Coors also failed to follow previous advice from HSE. As a result, Mr Jackson was seriously injured in an incident that could easily have been fatal.
" It is particularly disappointing to see such failings at a large company, which has the resources to deliver much better standards."
HSE guidance on workplace transport arrangements is available from http://www.hse.gov.uk/workplacetransport/index.htm

Driver Testing on Recruitment

Over the last few months there have a number of cases leading to Police and VOSA prosecutions involving shortcomings in drivers' knowledge of the tachograph rules. In these cases drivers did not appear to have sufficient knowledge of the drivers' hours rules; they may have had some understanding but it was simply not up-to-date or complete (by way of example it is still relatively common place for drivers not to have realised that since April 2007 the only split break permissible is one of 15 minutes followed by one of 30 minutes - in that order and not vice versa!).

Regulation 561/2006 in conjunction with the Transport Act 1968 requires every operator to have a system in place that complies with the regulatory requirements and operators are automatically guilty of offences committed by their drivers unless they can show robust systems are in place and they took all reasonable steps to prevent any contravention. The difficulty here is that any single gaps in the system will probably mean there is no defence and the operator is guilty.

One particular weakness in systems occurs on initial recruitment of drivers. Often drivers come on recommendation (i.e. "He has driven for X up the road for the last ten years and that operator would only employ good drivers - so he must be alright!"). It may sometimes be assumed that a driver has good knowledge of the drivers' hours rules when in fact this is not the case - many drivers have still not understood the changes introduced in April 2007 in relation to breaks, daily rests and weekly rests, for example. If an operator is prosecuted it is very easy for the prosecutor to ask the operator what checks were carried out to ensure proper knowledge of the drivers hours rules - invariably, no detailed check of actual rules knowledge takes place at all on initial recruitment or indeed thereafter.

It is highly advisable that any driver recruited by an operator undergoes some kind of diagnostic test (multiple choice or otherwise) to establish the true knowledge level. If there is a gap then this can be plugged immediately. Not only is it important to tackle this with regard to the drivers' hours themselves but also other tachograph compliance issues - the introduction and ever increasing proportion of digital tachographs in use has not been matched by driver knowledge and training; drivers need to be tested about use of their driver digital card, what to do if one is lost or stolen or it malfunctions, downloading procedures, how button selection takes place on the vehicle unit and so forth. In our experience drivers easily 'drift' into tachograph use without any proper training and any knowledge may simply have been acquired from other drivers in a somewhat haphazard fashion.

Our advice is that on recruitment all new driver employees should undergo some kind of detailed checking procedure before they carry out journeys for the operator - during their initial weeks and months particular regard must be had to analysing their charts and digital data to identify any problems which will in all likelihood be capable of being addressed through simple training.

Forklift Truck Incident

Harris Transport lost their appeal against the £28,000 fine handed to them on 23 January after an incident left an employee permanently disabled. The company now have to pay the fine in full and have incurred additional court costs of £5,300, Southampton Crown Court heard on 2 June.
Lee McMahon, from Southampton, suffered severe injuries to both legs when he was run over by a forklift truck whilst working at Harris Transport in Southampton. An HSE investigation discovered a systemic breakdown in Harris Transport’s health and safety management.
The incident occurred despite Lee McMahon wearing appropriate high visibility clothing. At the time, very dark conditions were reported, because the workplace lighting was deficient, and there were general maintenance problems with the forklift trucks. There was also no separation between vehicles and pedestrians, creating a dangerous situation in an environment where the lack of lighting restricted visibility.
Additional factors were that peripheral equipment on the forklift trucks created a number of blind spots and drivers had little or no training with new forklift trucks.
Ray Kelly, the HSE prosecuting Inspector said:
" This case illustrated starkly how easily normal work places can become accidental scenes when health and safety management systems breakdown. Some 15 months after the accident, Mr. McMahon, the injured person, is still in great pain, is unable to work and never likely to again."
" The HSE were very disappointed that Harris Transport Ltd felt the need to challenge the original penalty, which had followed a very serious accident, resulting in the permanent disablement of one of their employees, an accident that could have very easily resulted in his death."

We have to do more!

Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is warning both employers and drivers about the consequences of not taking reasonable care for the safety of others after a council employee was killed.
Dudley Metropolitan Council was fined £30,000 and ordered to pay £20,000 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act.
Michael Lilley, a council employee and the driver of the vehicle, pleaded guilty to two breaches of Section 7 of the Health and Safety at Work Act and was fined £750 and ordered to pay £500 in costs.
The man killed was George Pagett, a council employee who was described as a well-liked professional manager. He was struck and killed by a wheeled shovel loader, driven by Mr Lilley, in Dudley MBC's Lister Road Depot in Netherton on 27 October 2006. Wolverhampton Court, sitting at the Waterfront, Brierley Hill, heard how Mr Lilley drove against the direction of the site's one-way system and had the loading shovel at a height that meant he couldn't see in front properly. He also didn't take suitable precautions to make sure he didn't damage any other vehicles or harm pedestrians.
Mr Pagett had been wearing a high visibility jacket and was facing the oncoming traffic in the yard when he was hit in the upper back by the blade of the wheeled loader shovel's bucket. Other employees tried to warn Mr Pagett and divert Mr Lilley, but the vehicle did not stop until after the front wheel had run him over.
HSE inspector David Price said:
" This was a terrible incident that could so easily have been prevented. Mr Pagett's untimely death has brought great grief to his family, and to many of his work colleagues.
" Depots and loading yards are potentially dangerous places, with vehicles often required to manoeuvre in tight or enclosed spaces. Employers need to provide set routes, to keep pedestrians and vehicles safely apart. They also need to check their site rules and systems of work are both appropriate and adequately enforced.
" Drivers need to obey signs and instructions in workplaces, just as closely as they would obey them on a public highway. In driving at over 8mph against the one-way system, with the unnecessarily raised bucket obscuring much of his view through the windscreen, Michael Lilley failed to take reasonable care for the health and safety of Mr Pagett."

Safety Tips.

While vehicle manufacturers can make improvements to vehicles and incorporate the latest safety technologies the most crucial influence on road safety is driver behaviour. It is not just the obvious and often repeated tips on visibility and warnings to car drivers to be aware of the difficulties faced by truckers. These include lane changing, braking distances, headlamp dipping and indicating. Other factors which help to improve traffic safety include;
• Drive actively, in other words, be aware of traffic risks, plan your driving and pay continuous attention to other road users.
• Always wear your seat belt
• Stop for a rest at regular intervals and do a few relaxing exercises.
• Be sure to get a proper sleep every 24 hours. A well rested driver is a better and more active one.
• Drive efficiently and save fuel. Brake as little as possible to minimise brake wear.
• A well maintained truck is a safer truck. Just like it’s driver.
• Be kind to your body, avoid fatty foods and soft drinks

Tired?

Driver tiredness is the biggest killer on our roads, particularly on motorways and other monotonous roads. One in five crashes on these roads is estimated to have been caused by drivers nodding off at the wheel and the ratio of serious injuries is even higher because a sleeping driver doesn’t brake before an accident. Driving at night or during the afternoon dip are the most dangerous times.
Some of the things people do when they are feeling tired whilst driving are opening a window, turning up the volume of the radio or just trying to fight sleep off. They don’t prevent sleep, especially the “microsleeps” of just a few seconds.

The Government’s recommendations if you feel tired while driving are:
• Drink two cups of coffee or, ideally, a high-caffeine drink.
• Take a ten minute snooze to give the caffeine time to kick in.
• If you are still tired don’t drive any further.

The advice adds that the effect of the caffeine only last 60 – 90 minutes and the only real solution is not to be tired in the first place.

Some of the things that can be done are:
• Get enough sleep – Obvious enough but it is impossible to stop yourself eventually falling asleep if you are shattered.
• Let people know if you are having trouble sleeping and take it into account when planning journeys.
• Make sure that any medication you take doesn’t cause drowsiness.
• Drive carefully and calmly and think about any possible hazards (like the nutter who is swapping lanes and cutting up cars in front of you to get wherever they are going a minute quicker, if they are lucky). It helps prevent boredom if nothing else.
• Be especially alert on long monotonous roads. Cruise control is a nice technological advance but can make it even easier to fall asleep.
• Be especially careful and if possible avoid driving at the most dangerous times, between midnight and 6am and 2pm to 4pm.

Driving to or for work in bad weather
New health and safety research has suggested that employees may be putting themselves at risk by driving in adverse weather conditions. Employers are reminded that they have a duty of care towards their staff if they operate company car schemes to lease or hire vehicles for work and if they encourage staff to use their own vehicles on work-related journeys.
A survey carried out by the insurance group Royal Sun Alliance has found that nearly two thirds of employees
have driven in bad weather, because they felt obligated to do so.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents: RoSPA, states that businesses must assess the risk of driving on
company business in the same way that it must carry out risk assessments on other work activities. The employer must address the hazards associated with driving when the risk to road traffic is greatly increased by extremes of fog, snow or ice. The assessment must consider ‘those who may be affected’, the driver plus any passengers but also other road users and pedestrians. Fleet operators already have a requirement for control measures such as vehicle checks and regular servicing to manufacturers’ standards, but service intervals are increasing, typically to every 18,000 miles in some instances, which extends the time between inspections.
Casual drivers who use their own vehicles are less likely to be as thorough as a trained mechanic and tyre pressures and depth of tread, for instance, are critical to road safety. RoSPA recommend a minimum tread of 3mm against the legal limit of 1.6mm and some police forces allow for 4mm depth on operational vehicles.

Sensible advice to all people who drive as a condition of their work is to:
• Ask yourself the question: “is my journey really necessary?”
• Take sensible clothing
• Check that the vehicle is roadworthy before setting off.
• Check levels of oil and windscreen wash
• Carry out a quick visual inspection of tyres and lights
• Clean road grime and salt off light covers front and rear
• Plan the journey and schedule breaks every 100 miles or at two hour intervals
• Check the weather forecast and wear appropriate clothing, in case of a beak-down
• Carry a torch in the vehicle and take bottled water on long journeys
• Take a mobile phone, in case you get stranded

Fire, Fire - Fired?
You might remember a few years ago the company that dismissed their staff by text message. Bosses at Robb’s Department Store in Hexam, deliberately set off the fire bell to clear the building of customers and get staff together in one place. At the fire assembly point they informed the 140 staff that the store would be closing in two weeks time.
The store's administrators called the decision "efficient and practical". They thought it was "the most efficient and practical method of informing their colleagues of this business development was by using the fire alarm". A spokesman for the company said: "It is at the discretion of the store management how the staff are given the news. The fire alarm was set off to clear the store of members of the public."
Not the best use of the fire alarm and not a very good way to pass on the bad news to the employees. Although not called to the fire Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service said they would be investigating the circumstances of the fire alarm being used in this way.

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