Prosecutions

The company pleaded guilty at Northampton Crown Court to health and safety breaches which led to the death of an employee who was working underneath a 24-tonne road drain cleaning vehicle when the equipment supporting it collapsed. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) successfully prosecuted the company.

The employer breached section 2(1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974 for failing to train employees in a safe system of work for raising and working beneath vehicles.

The court was told that there were no health and safety systems in place to ensure that employees followed safe practices.

On 9 June 2007 the employee was carrying out repairs to a four-axle, eight-wheel lorry. He used four hydraulic lifts to raise the vehicle up to around six feet but instead of putting them on the front and fourth axles as is common practice, he put them on the front and third axle. After raising the lorry, it is thought that the employee wanted to rotate the wheels on the third axle so he placed a single tall axle stand under the middle fourth axle.

He then lowered the lifts so that the wheels on the third axle were able to rotate.  It appears that as he went to adjust the brakes of the third axle, the vehicle wobbled and the axle stand collapsed.  As it fell, the rear of the vehicle bounced into the hydraulic lifts, knocking them away from the wheels, allowing the lorry to fall on to the employee.

The court heard that there were two axle stands available, but the employee had only used one. Each stand had a safe working load of 7.5 tonnes which, if used together, would have been adequate to support the rear of the vehicle, but the single stand used would have been massively overloaded.