HSE warns HGV drivers over reversing
Date: 30 August 2007
The haulage industry is under the safety spotlight once again, after one firm was fined thousands of pounds following an accident involving a vehicle reversing.
Prosecuted after an employee was trapped between two lorries, the business was fined £4,000 by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for having inadequate safety procedures in workplace.
Such a case serves as a reminder of the risks both to employee safety and company finances complacency in this area can pose.
As such, the organisation has taken the opportunity to reiterate to road freight businesses that around a quarter of deaths involving a vehicle in the work place were the result of reversing.
"An employer's first consideration should always be to try and eliminate reversing at their premises," said Richard Bishop from the HSE.
"But where reversing cannot be avoided, there is clear guidance that spells out how to plan for safety, which should involve taking sensible, cost-effective measures to ensure a safe site, safe vehicles and safe drivers."
According to HSE figures, accidents caused by moving lorries cost two workers in the road haulage industry their lives in 2005-2006 and seriously injured 122 others.
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