Dangers of working under vehicles
June 3, 2008
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has issued a warning to repair and maintenance engineers of the dangers of working under vehicles following a case in which a man was killed while working on a refuse removal vehicle.
Simon Rose, 39, a field service engineer, from Burntwood in the West Midlands, worked for Dennis Eagle Limited, a Warwick-based manufacturer of refuse collection vehicles.
On 24 May 2006, Mr Rose was working on a refuse vehicle at the Burton depot. The vehicle had been reported to have an intermittent problem with the parking brake sticking on, when it should have released.
Mr Rose was working under the vehicle, using wheel chocks that were inadequate, when the parking brake released and the vehicle moved forwards over him, fatally injuring him.
An investigation into the death of Mr Rose revealed that he was an experienced engineer who was competent in problem-solving and was working in a logical way to solve the handbrake problem.
However, Dennis Eagle had failed to carry out a suitable risk assessment resulting in inadequate information and instruction on how to proceed safely in this situation and in other varying conditions. Supervision of the company's field service engineers was also found to be inadequate.
No chocks had been provided to allow employees to work safely under vehicles so Mr Rose was using two pieces of brick as an alternative.
Dennis Eagle was charged under s.2 of the Health and Safety at Work, etc Act 1974 with failing to ensure the safety of field service engineers, including Simon Rose, and was fined £166,000 and ordered to pay £22,612 in costs.
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