Newham haulier fined for fatal HGV incident

Date:

23 March 2009

Release No:

HSE/LON/015/2009

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is warning employers not to ignore basic safety precautions following the death of a lorry driver at a depot in East London.

John Peter Wootten, formerly trading as AEP Aggregates, has been fined £4,000 and costs of £750 after pleading guilty to breaching Sections 3(1)(a) and 10(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. The prosecution follows HSE's investigation into a fatal incident in which a driver in Mr Wootten's employment, Joseph Caruana, was fatally injured by a trailer.

On 19 December 2001, Mr Caruana was unloading shingle at the RMC Readymix Ltd depot in Tower Hamlets. He reversed the articulated lorry up a concrete ramp into the unloading bay and activated the tipping mechanism. He engaged the tractor handbrake but not the trailer parking brake, and as he failed to release the tailgate of the trailer the shingle load built up at the rear of it.

The weight caused the vehicle to skid down the ramp. When Mr Caruana noticed this he ran and jumped into the cab of his vehicle, but he did not have time to shut the door. The vehicle jack-knifed, throwing him from the cab and under the advancing wheels of the trailer and he died of multiple injuries at the scene.

Charles Linfoot, HSE Inspector said:

"Hauliers need to make sure they have safe systems of work, which include risk assessments adequate training and supervision of all workers. These actions are simple and could have saved the life of Mr Caruana. It is appalling that Mr Wootten ignored basic safety precautions and it is completely unacceptable that a man was killed in these circumstances."

"This prosecution shows that we are determined to tackle this issue head on and will continue to take enforcement action against companies and individuals who breach safety precautions."

Notes to editors

1. Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 states: "Every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of (a) the risks to the health and safety of his employees to which they are exposed whilst they are at work.
2. Regulation 10(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 states: "Every employer shall provide his employees with comprehensible and relevant information on:
   1. the risks to their health and safety identified by the assessment;
   2. the preventive and protective measures (including procedures, training, monitoring, supervision, review of working practices, & audit); &
   3. the procedures referred to in regulation 8(1) (a) (appropriate procedures to be followed in the event of serious and imminent danger)"

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Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by COI News and PR London.