Lorry driver killed by falling steel gates

Date:

29 March 2011

Release No:

SCO/029/11

A lorry driver was killed when he was hit by steel gates falling off his vehicle as it was unloaded by a forklift truck.

Andrew Brown was hit by two gates, weighing 153kgs or about 24 stone, at Simpsons Garden Centre in Inverness.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that the 58-year-old had been able to gain access to an area close to the side of his lorry while the gates were being unloaded.

Inverness Sheriff Court was told that Mr Brown had picked up 20 steel safety gates from Mackay Steelwork and Cladding Ltd's yard in Delny, near Invergordon, on 27 August 2008. He then drove them to the garden centre where they were to be unloaded by workers from MacKays using a forklift truck.

Mr Brown removed the securing straps from his load, and assisted the forklift truck driver during the unloading by ensuring the forks were positioned correctly before moving from his position behind his lorry. Four of the gates fell off the lorry as they were being unloaded, with two of them hitting him.

Paramedics were called but could not revive Mr Brown, and he was taken to Raigmore Hospital where he was pronounced dead. He had suffered a serious neck injury.

Today at Inverness Sheriff Court, Mr Brown's employers, James Paterson Haulage Ltd, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £13,300.

Mackay Steelwork and Cladding Ltd, of Longman Drive in Inverness, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the same Act. The company was fined £40,000.

Both companies admitted failing to adequately liaise with each other or obtain enough information to ensure a safe system of work was in place, particularly in relation to the role Mr Brown would play in unloading the gates.

Mackay Steelwork and Cladding Ltd also admitted it had failed to make cones and tape available to create a safe place of work around the lorry during the unloading operation.

Following the case, HSE Inspector Graeme McMinn said:

"This was a horrific and entirely avoidable incident. If proper safety measures had been taken, Mr Brown could still be alive today.

"Those involved in arranging and carrying out deliveries should exchange and agree information to ensure lorries can be loaded and unloaded in a safe manner.

"They must make sure a safe way of working is in place and that workers have clear responsibilities so everyone involved in the lifting operation knows what everyone else is meant to be doing and where they are meant to be.

"They must also make sure that, when loading and unloading is taking place, adequate measures are taken to keep workers away from this work."

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. http://www.hse.gov.uk/
2. In Scotland the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service has sole responsibility for the raising of criminal proceedings for breaches of health and safety legislation.
3. Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states: "It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees."
4. Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 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."

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