Man killed by collision with truck

A property development company was ordered to pay out over £50,000 in fines and costs after Bournemouth Crown Court heard that a Labourer was killed when he was struck by a moving telescopic materials handler on a building site.

The HSE brought the prosecution against a company that was constructing new housing in Shaftsbury, Dorset when the accident occurred on 17th June 1999.


On the day of the accident a Labourer was crossing an access road used by vehicles to transport materials to and from the site. As he was crossing the road he was struck by a passing telescopic materials handler. He fell underneath the vehicle and received a glancing blow to the side of the head from it's rear offside wheel. The driver of the machine was not aware of the accident until he traveled back across the access road five minutes later.

HSE Inspectors found a number of safety failures at the site. In particular the access road was the only route leading onto the site and was used by both vehicles and pedestrians. There were no separate marked paths to show pedestrians where to walk and no barriers to separate them from vehicles. In addition the court heard, the company failed to draw up an adequate health and safety plan before any work began at the site which would have set out how transport risks were to be managed.


The company have now stopped using this type of handler after it was found that drivers had a visibility problem on the right hand side of the vehicle.