Even with stringent health and safety policies in place, sometimes working within the logistics industry can have devastating consequences. We recently heard of a third party logistics company being sentenced over the death of an employee whose vehicle was hit by another warehouse operative working in the same aisle, the impact made the vehicle topple and he fell 14 metres, sustaining fatal injuries.
During the trial at Northampton Crown Court it was made clear that the business had no electronic or physical system in place to prevent two vehicles entering the same aisle at the same time, it was also highlighted that the vehicles did not have any sensors to alert the controllers of nearby drivers and in this instance, the operators driving positions meant they had to turn 180 degrees to see through their rear windows while reversing.
A huge breach of 2 (1) of the Health and Safety and Work Act:
It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees.
The company in question had also failed to provide adequate training to the warehouse operatives, the Northampton Crown Court found this to be a significant fault of the business and a direct cause of the accident as the operatives ignored prompts on the warehouse computer system to control vehicles that show when one is already in an aisle.
Although the company had various health and safety policies in place it failed to recognise that the warehouse operatives were not being trained through a structured and supervised training process but through word of mouth – this lapse in overall awareness within the warehouse shows safety controls were being ignored.
Operating a warehouse space of more than 7 million square feet and managing a distribution fleet of more than 300 commercial vehicles this fatal accident has hit the company hard, the total fines equating to £323,000 plus £30,000 costs let alone the tremendous feeling of blame left on the shoulders of all Senior Management.
STS Storage Systems have stringent and robust health and safety policies for every project we run to ensure our teams and your staff are safe. We ensure that our staff and contractors are fully trained and aware of how to mitigate any potential risks within the work environment, we also provide a duty of care when we are on-site for our staff and for our customers. We have an in-house IOSH trained specialist, who ensures our business is doing everything it should be. IOSH is the biggest health and safety membership organisation in the world and is the only Chartered body for health and safety professionals.