Hefty fines after driver killed by runaway cab

Two companies have been ordered to pay a total of £794,658 in fines and costs after a truck driver was run over and killed by his own vehicle.

In a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecution last month, Derby Crown Court was told how Gary Walters, 51, a driver at Gloucester-based Larkins Logistics, was collecting a trailer with structural concrete products from the Bison Manufacturing site in Swadlincote, Derbyshire, in October 2010.

He failed to apply the brake in his cab. Because Bison’s drivers had not applied the brake to the trailer, the vehicle moved as he was coupling the two parts together. He is believed to have gone around the front of the vehicle, possibly in an attempt to get into the cab and apply the brakes, but was struck by the cab and run over. Walters died of multiple injuries.

An HSE investigation found Bison’s drivers didn’t routinely apply trailer brakes to ensure the units were safely parked. After Walters’ death, a police vehicle examiner saw 10 other trailers at the site but none had the brakes applied, and no other manual system of restraint was in place.

The court was told how there had been other instances of lorries rolling away, and that Larkins’ drivers hadn’t been properly trained to assess the use of trailer brakes in the yard.

Both firms identified the risk to workers, but failed to implement appropriate control measures. Their method of working ignored published safety guidance, which put employees at risk.

After the trial, Larkins Logistics was found guilty of breaching Sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, was fined £350,000 for the Section 2(1) offence, £100,000 for the Section 3(1) offence and ordered to pay costs of £23,317. Bison Manufacturing admitted the same charges and was fined £233,000 for the Section 2(1) offence, £67,000 for the Section 3(1) offence, and ordered to pay £21,341 costs.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Judith McNulty-Green said: “Bison failed to implement a safe system of work for the storage of trailers with the brakes applied. They and Larkins failed to implement and monitor procedures for coupling and uncoupling trailers in the yard, and failed to do it despite previous incidents. Had they done so, they would have realised trailer brakes were routinely not being applied, taken appropriate action, and a man would not have lost his life so needlessly.”