Volvo fined after employee ‘crushed’ by truck

Volvo Group UK has been fined £13,000 after an employee was crushed by a truck, fracturing his spine.

Glasgow Sheriff Court heard that on June 6, 2016, an employee of Volvo Group UK was testing the brakes of a low-loader truck unit and trailer at the Cardonald depot in Glasgow.

He had raised the trailer off the ground using a pit jack. He did not apply the truck handbrake or use any wheel chocks to prevent the vehicle rolling.

While adjusting the brakes at the first axle, the truck unit rolled forward causing the jack to slip off the axle of the trailer. The truck rolled towards him, crushing him against a set of steps in the pit and fracturing his spine.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) established that Volvo Group UK had failed to provide a sufficient number of wheel chocks for use by its employees and failed to provide information, instruction, supervision and training of its employees in their use. It also found that the company failed to provide a suitable induction of the employee in safe working practices.

Volvo Group UK pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 and Section 33(1)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and was fined £13,333.33.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Jennie Stafford said: “Those in control of work have a responsibility to devise safe methods of working and to provide the necessary information, instruction and training to their workers in the safe system of working.

“If a suitable safe system of work had been in place prior to the incident, the life changing injuries sustained by the employee could have been prevented.”

The HSE is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety.