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BITA, the British Industrial Truck Association, is the UK’s leading trade association for forklift truck manufacturers and suppliers, companies supplying associated components and services, and the materials handling media. BITA plays a pivotal role in the industry, partnering with key international organisations to help set and maintain the highest technical standards, while also working continually to improve forklift operational safety.

Ben Burgin, 17 was working at Stagecoach Yorkshire’s garage at Wakefield Road in Barnsley, when the incident took place on 7 September 2009. He was working with an experienced fitter to repair a braking fault on a bus, which was fitted with an air-suspension system.

In order to carry out the repairs Mr Burgan slid beneath the bus, near the front passenger wheel, despite the presence of an unoccupied inspection pit. While he was underneath the vehicle an air bag on the suspension ruptured and caused the 14-tonne bus to fall and trap him underneath. His colleague managed to raise the bus and pull him free, but only after Burgan had suffered a fractured skull and broken nose. He required restorative plastic surgery to his nose and eye socket and was unable to return to work for two months owing to his injuries.

An HSE investigation found that Mr Burgin had not been trained to do the work and his employer Yorkshire Traction Company Ltd, which operated the garage, failed to both carry out a risk assessment and create a safe system of work.

HSE inspector Steve Kay stated that workers should never slide underneath a bus to carry out repairs and the garage operator should have ensured that the work was carried out inside the inspection pit. He said: “When employing young people, it is crucial that firms take particular account of their obvious lack of experience and lack of awareness of risks.

“The risks involved when working on buses and coaches with air-suspension systems are well known in the motor industry. The latest guidance has warnings about never going underneath unless the buses are properly supported. There have been incidents in the past, including deaths, when air-suspension systems have failed catastrophically while someone was underneath.

“Yorkshire Traction fell well below a reasonable standard. It failed to take basic precautions, such as looking at all the risks involved and specifying a safe system of work for their employees, including close supervision.”

Yorkshire Traction Company, now trading as Stagecoach Yorkshire, appeared at Barnsley Magistrates’ Court on 12 December and pleaded guilty to breaching s2(1) of the HSWA 1974 and reg.3(1) of the MHSWR 1999. It was fined a total of £15,000 and ordered to pay £8473 in costs.

In mitigation, the firm said its failure to create a safe system of work was an oversight and this was quickly corrected. It entered an early guilty plea after cooperating with the investigation. The company had no previous convictions.

In a statement, Paul Lynch, managing director of Stagecoach Yorkshire, said: “The safety of our staff is of paramount importance and we have strict healthy and safety procedures in place at all of our depots. We carried out a thorough investigation into this incident at the time and assisted HSE fully throughout their investigation.

“We have since put in place a series of measures to help prevent similar incidents, including strengthened health and safety training for all apprentices and new employees, as well as carrying out a revision of our risk assessments and safety procedures.”

He added that the supervisor at the time of the incident is no longer employed by the company.

The men were reportedly loading a pontoon or small boat onto the flatbed truck with a knuckle boom loader crane when the truck overturned and crushed the two men.

The photographs that we have been sent indicate that the lift was being carried out with no outriggers set. If this was the case, which is very hard to believe, then the crane was virtually bound to have tipped over.

The injured man is in his 40s while the man who died at the scene is said to be in his 50s, both are understood to be local.

The Health & Safety Executive will carry out a joint inquiry with the police to establish what has happened.

Quarrying plant and equipment manufacturer Parker Plant was sentenced on 27 October and fined £180,000, plus £47,500 in a contribution to costs. It had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to breaching s2(1) of the HSWA by not ensuring the safety of its employee, Michael Tilley, 55, at its Leicester site.

Leicester Crown Court heard that on the date of the incident, 13 December 2008, a 500-tonne concrete batching-plant installation was being manufactured for a project in Sudan.

Mr Tilley and a colleague had been attempting to load large parts of structural steelwork into a shipping container using an overhead crane. However, because the parts would not fit into the container, they were being placed on the ground next to it.

The two workers were directed to place one 1.5-tonne steel section on top of the other. As they released the lifting chains from the load, the top section slid off the bottom one and fell on Mr Tilley’s head, killing him instantly.

The court was told that Mr Tilley and his colleague had been working with an incorrect diagram that showed the two steelwork structures fitting on top of each other, which, in fact, was not possible. The structures were not strapped together, causing the load to be unstable and liable to fall unexpectedly. The work was not properly planned, or supervised and the lifting equipment provided to do the job was defective.

Principal Inspector Sue Thompson told SHP that Mr Tilley had been given no information on the size, weight, or the centre of gravity of the large structures, which would have enabled the men to sling the load correctly.

She stated: “It was routine practice to do difficult lifting operations and the company did not have a competent person to manage them. Mr Tilley was left to his own devices to make the best of a bad situation.”

She said the fatal incident was “utterly preventable” and occurred as a “direct result” of Parker Plant’s approach to the safety of its workers, adding that the company failed to provide the proper training for the work it was undertaking.

“If that work had been adequately planned and supervised, this tragedy would not have happened,” said PI Thompson. “Because of this company’s failures, one man lost his life and another will have to live with the after-effects of witnessing such a horrific incident.”

Parker Plant expressed regret and mitigated that it had made a lot of improvements since the incident, bringing in a bigger health and safety team and introducing new systems and procedures. In a statement issued after the case, the firm said: “Mr Tilley was a long-standing, highly-valued and much-respected colleague and his death affected everyone within the company.

“Following the incident the company has worked very closely with the HSE, and working practices have been thoroughly reviewed and strengthened in attempting to ensure that this kind of accident never happens again.”

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Metaltech Precision Engineers Ltd for failing to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery or stop the movement of dangerous parts of machinery before it could be accessed by any person at its Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machining centre facility in Diplocks Way, Hailsham, East Sussex.

Eastbourne Magistrates’ Court heard that on 12 December 2006, Metaltech was issued with an instant visit report following an HSE inspection which found the interlocks guarding a CNC milling machine had been disabled. On 31 March 2009, an unannounced inspection once again found that interlocking guards had been disabled and the firm was served with an Improvement Notice that required the introduction of a monitoring system to ensure that the interlocks on the machines were working.

During an unannounced inspection on the 23 June 2011, the HSE inspector witnessed that an interlocking guard on a machine had again been disabled and the system put in place to monitor them was not being followed. A Prohibition Notice was served.

HSE’s Inspector David Swaite said:

“All companies have a legal duty to ensure they take robust measures to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery.

“The disabled interlock meant that Metaltech had provided no effective measures to prevent employees from being exposed to risks of crushing and entanglement on the CNC machine. This could have resulted in an employee sustaining serious injuries or worse. This company was given ample guidance and opportunity to protect the safety of their workers and prevent legal action, but failed to do so.

“It is vital for employers to ensure that they have prevented access to dangerous parts of machinery and have effective supervision and monitoring systems to ensure that risk control measures are being followed.”

Metaltech Precision Engineers Ltd, of Diplocks Way, Hailsham, East Sussex, pleaded guilty to an offence under 33(1)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The firm was fined £12,000 and ordered to pay costs of £3,978.

North Somerset Magistrates’ Court heard that Paul Hinton of Bristol had been hired by Elegance Building Contractors Ltd. to work at a domestic property on 6 September 2010. The work included raising the roof level of the building and cladding part of the property with feature stonework. The construction worker was not wearing a hard hat at the time of the incident.

The company used subcontractors for the work but failed to ensure brick guards were installed on the scaffolding, which are designed to stop materials falling below.

Speaking after the case, Health and Safety Executive Inspector, Mark Renouf, said:

“This tragic incident could easily have been avoided if the brick guards or similar had been fitted to the scaffold.

“Mr Hinton has suffered major injuries and the incident could very well have led to a fatality. The use of hard hats was not common on this site however the greater failing is not stopping materials from falling in the first place.

“Building companies must learn from this case and make sure basic safety precautions are observed on sites.”

Elegance Building Contractors Ltd, of Princess Victoria Street, Bristol, pleaded guilty to a breach of Regulation 10 (1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and was fined £6,000 and ordered to pay costs of £4,733 at the hearing on Friday 23 September.

Yeovil Magistrates’ Court heard how, on 18 November 2010, Mark Pratten, 53, a lorry loader operator working for Saint Gobain Building Distribution Ltd (trading as Jewson Builders Merchant), attempted to use a brick clamp on a lorry crane to lift Peter Hoy, 47, a self-employed general builder off the roof of a cabin while he was collecting building materials from a construction site at Mayfield House, High Street, Rode.

Mr Hoy walked between the arms of the clamp, which was at waist height, in preparation to gain a foot or hand hold. As he did so, Mr Pratten attempted to move the arms. However, he used the wrong switch and inadvertently operated the clamp button.

The arms clamped Mr 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.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Mr Pratten fell far short of the appropriate standard required of a lorry loader operator in attempting to use the lorry loader in an unsafe manner and also lift Mr Hoy with the clamp. This was in spite of the fact that Mr Pratten was fully trained to use the lorry loaders and had more than 20 years’ experience in that line of work. He was also familiar with the controls on the machine he was using and aware of its capabilities, including the fact that the brick clamp was not suitable for lifting people.

Speaking after the prosecution, HSE inspector Helena Tinton said:

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

“Two people’s lives have been seriously affected in this incident: Mr Hoy is still suffering from health problems related to his internal injuries and does not yet know when he will be able to return to work. Mr Pratten has lost his job after this action which went against all his training and years of experience.”

Mark Pratten pleaded guilty to breaching Section 7 of the Health and Safety at Work Etc. Act 1974 and was fined £1,500 with £1,000 costs.

Andrew Grist, of Newton Abbot, suffered a detached calf muscle, a near severed toe and broken bones in his foot and was off work for six months after the incident at Kenbury Wood Waste Management Centre.

Leese’s Ltd, the site operator, was fined £4,500 and ordered to pay £818 costs by Exeter magistrates today (18 October) following a prosecution brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

The court heard that the telehandler was one of a number of similar vehicles working on the site. The telehandler had a blindspot because of its size, but there was no device, such as a reversing camera, fitted to the vehicle which could have prevented the incident. Site operators are required to ensure drivers of vehicles which might cause a risk of injury have all round visibility.

Mr Grist had got out of his vehicle on the site, believing he had received a “thumbs-up” signal from the operator of the machine emptying his lorry. He understood this to mean he could leave the site and get his lorry ready to go. It was at this point he was struck by the telehandler.

HSE Inspector, Simon Jones, speaking after the hearing, said:

“This incident could easily have resulted in a fatality at the site. All employers should ensure that vehicles they provide for use by their employees do not have blind spots.

“Site operators should ensure that only vehicles that have had blind spots eliminated are allowed to operate on their site.”

Leese’s Ltd, of Oak Tree Place, Manaton Close, Matford Business Park, Exeter pleaded guilty to a breach of Regulation 28 (e) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.

Terrence Foster, of Scaffolding Systems South West, was fined £8,000 and his partner in the business, Shaun Greenslade, was fined £5,000. Both were ordered to pay costs of £2,040 each in the case brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) at Exeter Magistrates.

A large section of scaffolding erected by the firm at a builders’ merchants on 25 March, 2009 fell away from the building, seriously damaging a number of parked cars. The scaffolding had been erected to allow re-roofing to take place at the premises.

HSE inspectors told the court that netting had been fixed to the scaffolding but extended almost a metre and a half above the roof of the building. The netting was attached to the inside edge of the scaffold instead of the outside and acted as a sail to the prevailing wind causing the scaffolding to collapse.

The investigation also found there were inadequate stability measures on the scaffold to withstand foreseeable wind speeds, such as scaffolding ties.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector, Andrew Kingscott, said:

“The degree of risk and danger to workers and the public was considerable. The standard of the scaffold as installed fell far short of the appropriate level.

“This incident could easily have led to human tragedy and should act as a wake-up call to scaffolders to carry their work out to industry standards.”

Shaun Greenslade, trading as Scaffolding Systems South West Ltd of Warwick Road, Heavitree, Exeter, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 28(2) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007.

Terry Foster, also trading as Scaffolding Systems South West Ltd, pleaded guilty to a breach of the same regulation.