Sole trader sentenced for tipper death failings
Posted: March 19, 2013
Posted in: Employer Negligence Road Traffic Accidents Workplace Injuries Wrongful & Accidental Death
A Berkshire haulier has been fined for safety failings after a long-serving employee was run over and killed by a tipper lorry at his Reading head office.
Brian Gutteridge was crossing a road from the main office to a car park when the vehicle struck him. He died at the site as a result of the injuries he sustained.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigated and found there were no designated crossing points on the road, and nothing to segregate pedestrians and vehicles or guide on who had the right of way.
HSE also established that the haulier had no formal workplace transport risk assessment, despite being advised by an independent health and safety consultant about pedestrian-vehicle interactions at another site in Reading.
He pleaded guilty to single breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 in his capacity as a sole trader. He was fined a total of £40,000, the maximum fine magistrates can impose, with costs of £17,060.
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