Richard Kenny, 48, from Earl Shilton, was killed instantly as the mini digger he was driving was crushed when a tipper lorry suddenly overturned on uneven ground while delivering around 20 tonnes of aggregate to a construction site.

The incident happened on 3 October 2006 during the construction of the Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition, Freeby Lane, Melton Mowbray. J H Hallam (Contracts) Ltd and J & H Construction Ltd were prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for failing to ensure the safety of Mr Kenny and for failing to properly plan, organise or control the tipping of bulk materials at the site.

Mr Kenny was employed by J&H Construction Ltd who had been subcontracted by principal contractor J H Hallam (Contracts) Ltd to do the groundworks at the site.

Leicester Crown Court heard the workplace transport risk assessment failed to properly consider tipping operations and the specific risks of vehicles overturning. The tipping area had not been adequately assessed as being safe for tipping operations, was not sufficiently level and had been poorly prepared.

HSE discovered deliveries of bulk materials were made without adequate supervision, a banksman or an exclusion zone around the vehicle during tipping and in addition, pedestrians were not kept away from vehicles, particularly during tipping.

J H Hallam (Contracts) Ltd, of Leicester Road, Oadby, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. J & H Construction, of De La Bere Crescent, Burbage, Hinckley, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the same Act.

J H Hallam (Contracts) Ltd was fined £80,000 and ordered to pay £20,000 costs. J & H Construction Ltd was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay £20,000 costs.

HSE inspector Frances Bailey said:

“Workplace transport should be managed on any site. This death could have been prevented if deliveries had been properly planned. It is well known that tipper lorries can overturn, especially on sloping or uneven ground and it is vital that people are kept a safe distance.

“In this case the principal contractor and the subcontractor failed to recognise the potential risk and regularly allowed lorries to tip without the aid of a banksman close to the site compound and visitor car park. J H Hallam (Contracts) Ltd should have been aware of the potential risk as it was involved in a previous incident where a skip lorry overturned on uneven ground.

“This has been a long and complex investigation, however the result will hopefully serve as a warning to others to review their arrangements for deliveries and avoid similar tragic incidents in future.”

Source: HSE 11.05.12

Ian Woolfitt, 65, was found trapped under the Iveco truck’s tipping trailer in a haulage site in Lockington near Driffield on Tuesday afternoon. It is believed he had visited the yard on his way to work that morning. It is not known how long he had been trapped.

Andrew Scargill, health and safety adviser at Wold Construction, told the Hull Daily Mail: “We believe he had nipped there to do a quick job. The Iveco tipper had a flat tyre. We think Ian had been attempting to change it. In order to access the spare tyre, you have to tip the trailer up using the mechanism. Because there were no witnesses, it is very difficult to ascertain exactly what has happened.”

Mr Woolfitt set up Wold Construction in 1991 and had remained managing director.

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There were 171 fatal injuries in the year to March, up from 147 in the previous 12 months, the figures from the Health and Safety Executive showed.

Experts are worried that cutting back on training and maintenance during the recession could be partly responsible for the rise, with the Institution of Occupational Health and Safety (IOSH) warning that ongoing “belt-tightening” could be causing the rise in deaths at work.

The construction and agricultural industries continued to report the highest levels of work-related injuries, with disproportionately high numbers of incidents, said the HSE.

However, the figures show a continued fall in the number of people injured at work. There were just over 90,000 injuries serious enough to keep people off work for four or more days – a rate of 363.1 injuries per 100,000 workers – down from the 96,427 the previous year.

There was a rate of 99 major injuries per 100,000 workers, such as amputations, fractures and burns, also down slightly from the previous year, the figures showed.

An estimated 1.2 million people said they were suffering from an illness caused or made worse by their work, down from 1.3 million in 2009/10.

The HSE said Britain continued to have the lowest rate of workplace deaths compared to the rest of Europe.

Judith Hackitt, HSE’s chair, said: “Britain can be proud that it has one of the best health and safety records in Europe but as the increase in the number of fatalities makes clear, we can never let up in our commitment to addressing the serious risks which continue to cause death and injury in workplaces.

The toll of injury and ill-health across all industries resulted in 26.4m working days being lost – an average of 15 days per case, 22.1m to ill-health and 4.4m to injury.

Richard Jones, heaad of policy at IOSH, said: “It’s disappointing that the drop in fatal injuries from last year hasn’t been maintained – even one death is too many.

“We’re concerned that this could be a delayed knock-on effect of recession and ‘belt-tightening’ – cutting back on training and maintenance – within organisations, which could now be finally beginning to bite.”

KEY FIGURES – 2010-11

1.2m working people were suffering from a work-related illness.

171 workers killed at work.

115,000 injuries reported.

200,000 reportable injuries (over three-day absence) occurred.

26.4m working days were lost due to work-related illness and workplace injury.

Source: HSE

Peter Hoy, a self-employed builder, suffered serious internal injuries in the incident, which happened in November last year while Mark Pratton was collecting building materials from a construction site in Rode, Somerset.

Pratton, who was working for Saint Gobain Building Distribution (trading as Jewson Builders Merchant), was collecting a pallet of materials that was behind a 2.5-metre high wall.

It was not possible to pick the materials up normally with the lorry crane, so to try to guide the crane into place Hoy climbed onto the roof of the cabin.

To get Hoy back down quickly, Patten tried to lift him with the brick clamp on the crane.

As Hoy walked between the arms of the clamp, which was at waist height, Pratten attempted to move the arms. But he used the wrong switch and accidently operated the clamp button.

The arms clinched Hoy’s waist, fracturing his pelvis and causing crush-related internal injuries, including nerve damage. His injuries are so severe that he is still off work.

On Friday (14 October), Yeovil Magistrates’ Court heard that Pratten’s actions went against all his training and more than 20 years of experience in operating lorry loaders.

He was familiar with the controls and fully aware of the machine’s capabilities, including the fact that the brick clamp was not suitable for lifting people.

“Even if the clamp had not been activated,” said HSE inspector Helena Tinton, “attempting to lift Mr Hoy down from the cabin roof with a brick clamp was in no way safe.”

Pratton, who lost his job over the incident, admitted breaching Section 7 of the Health and Safety at Work Act, which requires employees to take reasonable care of themselves and others.

Magistrates fined him £1500 and ordered him to pay £1000 in prosecution costs.

Source: HSE 14th October 2011

On 26 August 2009, Steven Graham was standing in between two skips at a recycling centre run by Lowmac Alloys Ltd when a shovel loader weighing more than 18 tonnes hit one of the skips, pushing it towards the other and crushing Mr Graham between them.

Mr Graham, 46, from Ayrshire, screamed for help but the driver of the shovel loader did not hear him at first and carried on driving. When he realised that Mr Graham was injured, the driver tried to lift one of the skips away from Mr Graham but it took two attempts before he managed to do so.

Mr Graham was taken to Ayr Hospital by ambulance. He was treated for a broken pelvis and other severe, life-changing injuries. He continues to have difficulty in walking.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that the company had not properly risk assessed traffic management at their site in Ayr and had not provided and maintained a safe system of work in that there were no barriers or road markings to separate pedestrian workers from the shovel loader or other vehicles on site. The investigation also found that the shovel loader was too big for the area where it was operating, and that the drivers had never been formally trained, were not supervised, and had been given no training at all on health and safety issues.

The one portable toilet on site was found to be unhygienic with no running water. Several of the employees told HSE inspectors that the toilet was so filthy they preferred to urinate in the yard, and this was a practice accepted by management. It was this situation that led to Mr Graham being in between the skips.

HSE Inspector Aileen Jardine said:

“Mr Graham suffered horrendous injuries that will affect him for the rest of his life – but this incident was entirely avoidable.

“If Lowmac had taken simple steps to protect their staff, carrying out a proper risk assessment and taking measures to separate employees from the heavy vehicles that operated on site, this would not have happened.

“And if the company had shown basic consideration for the welfare of their employees by providing a toilet that was fit to use, Mr Graham would not have been left in such a vulnerable position.”

At Ayr Sheriff Court today (15 August 2011) Lowmac Alloys Ltd, of Green Street Lane, Ayr, plead guilty to breaching Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Etc Act 1974. They were fined £80,000.

Source: HSE – 15th August 2011

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), prosecuting, told Chelmsford Crown Court that in the early hours of 23 March 2010, Simon Mason, 22, from Romford, Essex was working the nightshift as a warehouse porter. An articulated 45ft HGV trailer was being reversed into an open loading bay while Mr Mason waited to unload it.

Mr Mason noticed the trailer was not positioned straight in the bay, so thinking it had stopped moving, he put his head around the back of the trailer to shout instructions to the driver. Just as he did so, the trailer came back further, crushing his head against the brick bay wall.

Mr Mason received severe head injuries requiring constant care for months and had to undergo several operations. He returned to work in February but is still suffering some long term effects.

HSE’s investigation found Tufnells had not assessed, controlled, or properly managed the risks arising from vehicle and equipment movements at its West Horndon depot. It had also failed to provide a safe system of work for its employees.

After the hearing today at Chelmsford Crown Court, HSE Inspector Glyn Davies said:
“Working with moving vehicles is a high risk activity which causes significant numbers of major and fatal injuries every year in this country. Tufnells is well aware of these risks and this horrific incident in which a young man could have lost his life would have been avoided had the company’s senior management ensured such risks were properly managed in all of its depots.

“This firm could have put in place a physical separation between the porters, moving vehicles and the loading bays and a safe way for porters and drivers to communicate with each other. None of these measures were evident and so a worker was seriously hurt for no good reason.”

Last year, 17 workers were killed and more than 530 suffered major injury after being hit by moving vehicles while at work in Great Britain. Of these, two workers were killed and 130 received major injuries resulting specifically from contact with a reversing vehicle.

Tufnells Parcels Express Ltd, whose Head Office is in Shepcote House, Shepcote Lane, Sheffield, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was fined £150,000 with costs of £19,000.

Source: HSE – 1st August 2011