Fatal Crushing – No Safe System of Work

The point of a Safe System of Work is self-evident: to provide a safe system for carrying out a (potentially dangerous) task. When I raise the need for these with clients, I am sometimes told that they are unnecessary, as everyone knows how to do it, or that nobody would do it differently/wrong. This case, sadly, shows that people do have different ideas/approaches and that people do omit (or forget) important steps.

A Lancashire man has been sentenced after a father-of-three was fatally crushed while working underneath a double-decker bus.

On 14 June 2017, WL, a 46-year-old employee of Brian Finch, trading as F E Coaches, was carrying out repairs under a double-decker bus in the car park of Chester Zoo. The bus had been supported by a hydraulic bottle jack and WL had placed some wooden blocks underneath the stationary bus. The bus rolled backwards off the bottle jack, trapping WL Lannon under the bus resulting in him sustaining fatal injuries. WL is survived by his wife, two daughters and a son.

The HSE’s investigation found that the company did not have a safe system of work in place for preventing the bus from moving. The bus parking brake had not been applied before Mr Lannon went under the bus and the bus was not chocked to prevent it from rolling off the jack. Brian Finch also failed to provide training and instructions to WL in mechanical work or safe lifting of vehicles, and about the type of repairs that were suitable to be made outside of the workshop.

Brian Finch T/A F E Finch Coaches, of Moat House Street, Ince, Wigan, pleaded guilty to breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and was sentenced to six months custody, suspended for 18 months, and subject to a curfew (between the hours of 7 pm-8 am) for 30 weeks, with full costs of £9,381.

In a family statement, WL’s sister described how the loss of WL had left his family and friends with ‘shattered hearts’.

Keeley said: “Our brother was the greatest person. He was the perfect brother…, WL always believed in speaking kindly, always believed in helping others’.

“We are deeply saddened…his children will never feel or hear him again…we have no idea how we carry on, how we cope, how we live with the pain we are in.”

HSE Inspector Lianne Farrington said after the hearing: “This was a tragic and wholly avoidable incident, caused by the failure of Mr Finch to ensure there were adequate control measures in place, such as chocking the bus, and to implement safe systems of work. Had the company ensured that proper control measures were in place, [WL] Lannon would not have lost his life.”