Workplace Transport Accidents Cost £180m Per Annum

Workplace Transport Accidents Cost £180m Per Annum

The HSE addressed how to reduce workplace transport accidents in a seminar held yesterday Wednesday (12 Sept).

Currently fatal and serious injuries are costing the industry £180m a year.

On average there are between 10-25 fatal incidents annually and up to 3,800 people seriously injured every year in workplace transport accidents ranging from falls from vehicles to slips and trips.

One recent case, reported by Workplace Law, involved a haulage company that was fined following an accident that resulted in serious injury to an employee, who was seriously injured after being trapped and crushed between two heavy goods vehicles as one reversed past the other. The resulting investigation by the HSE showed a number of deficiencies in the company’s arrangements to ensure safety during reversing operations.

W. E. & I. Wright Ltd was fined £4,000 at Durham Magistrates Court on 29 August 2007 after admitting it had breached section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The company was also ordered to pay £2,500 in costs.

At the seminar HSE Inspector Iain Evans stressed that it is the employer’s responsibility to ensure good practice of health and safety procedures. He said: “Many people in business believe that because they have had few accidents, all that is needed is basic common sense and that most accidents are unavoidable. “

Relying on people’s common sense works fine until something does go wrong. When that someone gets killed or seriously injured, it can suddenly look a bit of an inadequate approach. “Too many employers live to regret not taking health and safety more seriously before an accident, rather than after one of their employees has been badly injured at work.”

The majority of deaths and serious injuries in workplace transport accidents are caused by:

• Being struck by a moving vehicle
• Falling loads
• Falls from vehicles
• Collapsing or overturning vehicles
• Slips and trips
• Manual handling

Evans added:

"Accidents can be avoided by robust 'risks assessments' and 'managing safety' and effort should be focused on practical control and improvements where needed, not on lots of paperwork and forms for their own sake.”

Souce: Workplace Law Network