HSE challenges motor vehicle repair industry to reduce its fatality record

HSE Press Release: E116:04 - 9 August 2004

Recently published figures from the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) on fatal injuries in Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and local authority enforced sectors for 2003/04 show increases in the number of fatal incidents involving motor vehicle repair (MVR) activities.

The figures show that eight workers died as a result of accidents while involved in MVR activities, with a further six deaths occurring so far in the current reporting year.

The eight fatalities in the 2003/04 were:

• three fatal incidents caused by workers being struck by a moving vehicle because the handbrake had been left off;
  
• a mechanic who died when another vehicle travelling along the motorway struck the vehicle he was working on;
  
• three employees who were crushed to death while working under vehicles, in one case at the roadside and in another when the vehicle fell off a raised two-post vehicle lift; and
  
• one fatal fire resulting from the mishandling of petrol where an apprentice mechanic died after being engulfed in flames, and several vehicles on the garage forecourt were also destroyed.

John Powell, from HSE's Manufacturing Sector and Chair of the MVR Health and Safety Forum said:

"All of these deaths were avoidable. Simple things such as leaving parked vehicles with their handbrakes on or ensuring that vehicles were properly supported before going underneath them could be enough to save a life. Precautions to prevent almost all types of accidents in MVR are often simple and inexpensive.

"Sadly, there have been a further six deaths in the first four months of this year, three of them in separate fires or explosions to self-employed workers and involving the ignition of petrol vapours.

"The death toll in the MVR industry is unacceptable. Everyone must work harder to ensure that the appropriate measures are in place to prevent further tragedies.

"The HSE and representatives from the industry have been working together to publish best practice solutions. If businesses bookmark HSE's MVR website as one of their favourites they will be 'just one click away from health and safety advice' to prevent accidents and ill health in the industry".

Notes to editors

1. Health and Safety advise for the MVR sector is available from the HSE's MVR website at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/mvr

2. The press release HSE publishes statistics of fatal injuries 2003/04 can be viewed at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2004/c04038.htm

3. Fatalities involving MVR activities in previous years were:

• 1999/2000 - 4
• 2000/01 - 4
• 2001/02- 7
• 2002/03 - 5

4. In 2001, it was estimated that the MVR industry in the UK employed over 170,000 people in about 44,000 businesses. The industry is dominated by small and medium-sized companies with over half the workforce employed in either zero-employee enterprises e.g. sole traders or partnerships, or businesses employing less than 10 people. Companies with less than 50 employees accounted for about 80 per cent of the workforce.

5. The HSE's main contact with the industry is through the MVR Health and Safety Forum which was set up in June 1999 to co-ordinate the interests and activities of all those involved with health and safety in the industry. Membership includes representatives from a wide range of organisations associated with MVR, including trade and professional associations, equipment and services suppliers, insurance companies, educational bodies and the trade unions. The Local Authorities are also represented. Further details can be found on HSE's MVR website.

6. The main causes of fatal injury during the period from 1998 to 2003, were:

• trapped by something collapsing/overturning -e.g. vehicles falling off jacks or jacks failing;
• struck by moving vehicle - e.g. by vehicles being driven in/out/around premises;
• struck by moving or falling objects e.g. vehicles falling off inspection lifts, loads off fork lift trucks;
• fire/explosion - e.g. through mishandling of petrol.