Simon Rose worked as a field service engineer for Dennis Eagle and was working on one of the company’s vehicles when the incident occurred. He had been driving the vehicle around the East Staffordshire Borough Council’s Millers Lane, Burton depot yard to determine an intermittent fault that had been reported regarding the parking brake sticking on. Principal HSE inspector Clive Brookes explained that the brakes on the vehicle had jammed and Rose had left the cab. Brookes thought that he had possibly forgotten the vehicle was still in gear. An investigation into the death of Mr Rose revealed that he was an experienced engineer who was competent in problem-solving and was working in a logical way to solve the handbrake problem. The engineer chocked the vehicle with some house bricks because his employer had not provided the correct equipment. It was also reported that he had not been shown how to chock a vehicle correctly. Working under the vehicle, Rose freed a sticking valve and the vehicle rolled over him. The fatal incident occurred in May last year. Dennis Eagle pleaded guilty to a breach of section 2(1) of the HSWA 1974 for failing to ensure the health and safety of its employees. It was fined £166,000 and ordered to pay full HSE costs of £22,612. ‘The worrying thing in this case is that there were 30 other workers doing the same job as Mr Rose, and nobody had risk-assessed their activities. Risk assessment for peripatetic workers should embrace the locations they work in, the weather conditions, lighting, etc, and it must cover their activities 24,7, 365 days a year.’ HSE stated that the company had failed to carry out a suitable risk assessment resulting in inadequate information and instruction to deal with the situation safely. It also stated supervision of the company’s field service engineers was also found to be lacking. The company stated that it had developed a maintenance manual for its field service engineers immediately after the incident. This includes an instruction to advise that if a particular fuse is removed, it will allow the vehicle to continue running without isolating the gearbox. HSE is warning vehicle repair and maintenance engineers of the dangers of working under vehicles. |
