RAILWAY CONTRACTORS WARNED ABOUT UNSAFE USE OF WORKSITE TRAILERS

HSE press release : E046:03 - 18 March 2003

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has issued a warning to railway maintenance contractors to ensure proper planning and risk assessment before undertaking track work using trailers. The warning follows the prosecution last week of one of the main infrastructure maintenance contractors (IMCs) for using an unsafe system of work during an engineering possession.

Jarvis Facilities Limited, trading as Jarvis Rail, were fined a total of £25,000 by Stratford-upon-Avon magistrates on Friday 14 March after pleading guilty to two charges of breaching health and safety law during work on the Leamington Spa -Coventry route between 10-14 June 2002, as part of the Cross Country Route Modernisation Project.

The case followed an investigation by HM Railway Inspectorate of an incident on 14 June 2002, near Kenilworth South Junction Loop points, when a flatbed trailer, being propelled by a road-rail excavator, derailed. The trailer was used on three nights within a 'T3' possession to ferry workers and materials between the work site and the nearest access point to the track, some four and a half miles away.

The trailer was not designed to carry personnel, having no seats or harnesses; the work had not been the subject of risk assessment and there was no method statement despite workers' concerns on the earlier nights. Transport had not been considered at the pre-planning meeting. The excavator was travelling faster than the trailer's established safe speed. In mitigation, the court was told that carrying people on such trailers had become custom and practice in the industry.

At the point of derailment, all four men on board - a Jarvis-employed Engineering Supervisor and three contract workers - were thrown from the trailer. One man, the COSS, was trapped underneath the trailer, and suffered extensive bruising to his back and soft tissue damage, but there was clearly potential for multiple injuries or even a fatality.

Jarvis Facilities Limited, of Frogmore Hall, Watton at Stone, Herts, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (the HSW Act), and was fined £20,000. The company also pleaded guilty to breaching regulation 4(3) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER 98), and was fined £5,000. Full prosecution costs of £692 were also awarded to HSE. Both fines were the maximum penalty the magistrates could impose.

HSE alleged that the company failed to conduct their undertaking so as to ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable, that persons not in their employment were not exposed to risks to their safety; and that work equipment was used for operations for which, and under conditions for which, it was unsuitable.

Speaking after the case, HM Inspector of Railways, Stephen Turner, said: "This was a situation in which the COSS, a sub contractor with one year's railway experience (and only two months as a COSS) was subordinate to a directly-employed and more experienced Engineering Supervisor. Workers' concerns about the unsafe practice were ignored by the defendant's site managers.

"The court clearly took this case very seriously indeed by awarding the maximum penalties. The lesson must be that companies must plan jobs properly, assess risks and make sure that site managers are not having to make last minute decisions about fundamental parts of the job."

Notes to editors

1. Section 3 (1) of the HSW Act states, "It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety."

2. Regulation 4 (3) of PUWER 98 states, "Every employer shall ensure that work equipment is used only for operations for which, and under conditions for which, it is suitable.

3. The maximum penalty for a single offence under Section 3 (1) is a fine up to £20,000. Failure to comply with a Regulation can result in a fine of up to £5,000. It is open to the Magistrates to commit cases for trial or sentencing to the Crown Court, where the maximum penalty for each offence is an unlimited fine.