5th July 2023

Transport Company Fined After Driver Injured During Unloading

What’s Happened?

A transport company has recently been fined over a quarter of a million pounds after a worker fell from a lorry and fractured his skull.

The delivery driver had been delivering glass to a customer’s site in Hinckley, Leicestershire when the incident occurred.

It transpires that as no forklift truck was available to facilitate the unloading of the goods on site, the delivery driver was forced to improvise by manually lifting and passing panes of glass from a stillage in the lorry down to another worker on the ground.

The delivery driver then fell from the back of the lorry. He suffered severe injuries including fractures to his skull, left hand, nose and right eye socket. Furthermore, he also sustained two bleeds on the brain, a 12-centimetre gash on his forehead and dislocated his right elbow.

As a result of the injuries sustained, the delivery driver needed to spend five days in hospital following the incident and has since had to make significant adjustments to his day-to-day life as he struggles to carry out daily activities and is in constant pain from his injuries.

HSE Investigation

As is customary due to the serious nature of the incident, an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) ensued. The HSE discovered that the employer had failed to put in place appropriate control measures for unloading activities. Risk assessments had not been undertaken which meant that the work was being carried out unsafely.

In Court

The company attended Leicester Magistrates’ Court on 20 June 2023 where they pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The company was fined £255,000 and ordered to pay £3,687 in costs.

After the verdict, the HSE inspector involved in the case said: “The fine imposed on them should underline to everyone in the transport industry that the courts, and HSE, take a failure to follow the regulations extremely seriously.

We will not hesitate to take action against companies which do not do all that they should to keep people safe.”

HSE guidance on loading and unloads safety can be freely downloaded from their website.

If you require advice or support in undertaking risk assessments, then don’t hesitate to call our adviceline on 0300 303 5228 or email us at info@lighthouseriskservices.co.uk