Haulage company hit with fine after health and safety failings
Andrew Black Limited pleaded guilty on 04 July 2023 to breaches of health and safety legislation which resulted in a Court fining the company £150,000. This follows the death of the haulage company’s driver, Grant Borton, after he was electrocuted whilst cleaning his tipper vehicle.
Mr Borton was on site washing his vehicle when, on exiting the washing bay, he raised the body of his tipper. The body of the tipper made contact with overhead powerlines and caused the driver to be electrocuted. The company were then subsequently charged with breaching the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989, specifically regulation 4(3):
“(3) Every work activity, including operation, use and maintenance of a system and work near a system, shall be carried out in such a manner as not to give rise, so far as is reasonably practicable, to danger.”
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) state that the death of this particular employee could have been avoided if the company had implemented safer working practices and other methods of controlling the working environment to ensure individuals’ safety. The HSE has published guidance on the dangers that come with overhead power lines as well as guidance on the identification and mitigation of risk in the workplace, for example, the establishment of safety zones.
It is important that operators and businesses ensure that they have identified risk in the workplace and, where the risk cannot be removed entirely, ensure that there are measures, practices, and procedures in place to mitigate against those risks. This not only protects employees and avoids devastating incidents such as this, but it also means that businesses will avoid the heavy fines available to the Court in incidents such as this.
Link to HSE article:
https://press.hse.gov.uk/2023/07/04/haulage-company-fined-150000-after-employee-death/
Link to HSE guidance:
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