The Health and Safety Executive have recently handed out several large fines to companies who failed to implement health and safety measures concerning pedestrians and truck operators.
Sadly, two cases involved fatalities where pedestrians were struck by a forklift truck and a telehandler and later died from their injuries.
In both cases, the employees were simply walking around their business premises – the companies did not provide suitable and sufficient control measures to ensure that pedestrians and vehicles could circulate in a safe manner. This led to them being fined a total of £260,000.
Speaking after one case HSE Inspector Connor Gibson said “The tragic outcome of this incident clearly highlights why duty holders must ensure that vehicle and pedestrian movements at their work site are properly assessed and adequately controlled. This fatal incident could and should have been prevented via suitable and sufficient control measures segregating pedestrians from vehicle movements.”
Speaking after the hearing of another, HSE Inspector Sarah Taylor said: “Pedestrians and vehicles need to be kept apart at all work sites. This incident could so easily have been avoided by simply segregating vehicles and pedestrians.”
Are you aware of your Health and Safety obligations? Are your employees trained to operate forklift trucks to the necessary standard? Have you had near misses that could have led to a serious accident?
Speak to us to get your business training obligations back on track.
Contact David.gearon@keyperformancetraining.co.uk or call us for more information on 01793 975353
