22 November 2004 - HSE to Visit Warwickshire on Workplace Transport Arrangements
Both the HSE and council, will also be looking at the arrangements businesses have in place for the control of risks within working at height, slips and trips and manual handling.
Workplace transport has the second largest fatalities in Britain, of which a large majority could have been prevented. The four main causes of these accidents are as follows:
- moving vehicles hitting or running over people
- people falling off workplace vehicles
- workplace vehicles overturning
- objects falling off workplace vehicles
The Official HSE co-ordinator for these inspections commented:
"Around 70 people in the UK die in workplace transport accidents each year and there are more than 1,000 major injury accidents. This is mostly due to insufficient driver training, poor workplace layout and inadequate separation of vehicles from pedestrians.
The vast majority of workplace transport accidents are preventable, and all companies need to assess the risks in their workplace thoroughly to make sure there are no accidents waiting to happen. We will be looking at issues such as reversing vehicles, driver training, loading and unloading, pedestrian safety and vehicle maintenance.
Although inspectors offer help and advice, we will not hesitate to take enforcement action to deal with matters that could affect the safety of workers or any other person."
Safety information for workplace transport can be accessed by clicking the following: HSE Topic - Workplace Transport
Article by Alexandra Johnston
