![PP Construction Safety logo and link to home page [1]](http://www.ppconstructionsafety.com/wp-content/themes/ppcs960/images/ppcslogo.jpg)
Logistics firm fined after workman crushed between reversing lorry and wall
KBC Logistics Ltd of Essex has been prosecuted after an employee was seriously injured when he was crushed by a reversing lorry at their depot in Grays in Essex.
Basildon Magistrates heard that in the early hours of 13 May 2011 a driver was waiting to take his place at the wheel of the articulated HGV vehicle. He was guiding the returning driver as he reversed the lorry into the poorly lit yard.
He bent down to pick up a torch and the driver lost sight of him and continued to reverse crushing him between the back of the lorry and the office wall causing severe crush injuries to his arm, body and collar bone.
Poorly lit yard with no separation of people and vehicles
HSE investigators found the yard was poorly lit, there was no means of separating pedestrians and vehicles, there was no proper supervision on site and no health and safety training for the staff working there or their managers.
KBC Logistics Ltd, registered at 117 Dartford Road, Dartford, Kent pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was fined £12,000 with costs of £3,009.80.
After the hearing HSE Inspector Nicola Surrey said:
“This was a small yard used by a large number of lorries which were often forced to reverse as there was no room to carry out a U-turn. It was common practice for employees to wander across the yard from the workshop or from where they parked their cars to the office, to and from the diesel tank and to where the lorries were parked making the yard an extremely dangerous environment.
Working with moving vehicles is a high risk activity which causes significant numbers of major and fatal injuries every year in this country. Mr Chorazak was seriously injured in this incident and it was only good fortune that it did not end in a fatality.”