Poor Safety Systems Cause Vehicle Falls

Failings in safety management are responsible for most falls from vehicles at work, Health and Safety Executive (HSE) boffins have found.

The Health and Safety Laboratory reviewed over 250 falls from vehicles reported under the official reporting system RIDDOR over the last five years.

The researchers looked at factors associated with the incidents including safe systems of work, type of vehicle, the part of the vehicle from where the person fell, what they were doing at the time, the location of the vehicle and other contributory factors.

Failures in safe systems of work were the most significant factor identified.

The lack of safe systems of work or poor risk assessments were problems in almost three quarters of incidents.

Failure to follow safe systems where they did exist only accounted for 24 per cent of accidents.

Most incidents happened when unloading or loading, with the most common problem found to be falls from trailers.

Almost half of the forklift incidents involved people climbing on the forks to access higher levels.

The report has been issued as part of the current HSE campaign on falls from vehicles.

Source: TUC Risks

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