Transport firm fined £80k after worker’s fatal accident

The worker, Andrew Harrold, was unloading the lorry at Transpan (Scotland) Ltd’s Tore Mill site, Inverness when the incident happened in February 2011. Emergency services used a digger to remove the wheat while a colleague worked with a shovel to free his buried colleague.

But attempts to resuscitate the unconscious 33-year old worker were unsuccessful and he died at the scene.

Died at the scene​

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) revealed a bungee-style cord was positioned over the controls that were meant to be operated solely by hand. The system was designed to ensure the operator was at a safe distance from the trailer’s discharge point, as the trailer body was lifted.

But Inverness Sheriff Court heard the tipper was already rising before the worker had finished opening the back door, which then burst open.

After the hearing, HSE principal inspector Niall Miller said the risk was entirely foreseeable. “The bungees or elasticated cords on this tipping control had been on there for some time and there were other devices – such as pieces of wood and plastic pipe – that were used to defeat the safety function on other lorries,”​ said Miller.

Could easily have supervised drivers​

“Transpan could easily have supervised drivers on site. If Mr Harrold had been prevented from using the elasticated cord on the tipping control, he could not have gone behind his lorry when it was tipping upwards.”​

Transpan (Scotland) Ltd pleaded guilty to a charge brought under Section 2 and 33(1)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

HSE advice on operating vehicles at work safely is available here​.

Meanwhile last month Cargill was fined £600,000​ after the death of a lorry driver who was buried under tonnes of soya meal.

Malcolm Harrison,  a 64 year old worker from Keighley, was fatally injured at Cargill’s Seaforth Dock in Liverpool on September 6, 2012.