It Could Happen to You

Accidents in haulage yards or warehouses affect thousands of people annually, but many are avoidable. Bosses need to take health and safety more seriously

Each year about 50 people in the road transport industry go out to work in the morning but never return home. They are not victims of incidents at the side of the motorway or at the wheel of a truck, but in a haulage yard or a logistics warehouse.

The Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) website catalogues these workplace accidents, and it makes for grim reading. For instance, an agency driver was crushed between a reversing truck and a stationary vehicle and died of his injuries. In a similar incident, the owner of a small haulage company was killed.

In another case, a driver suffered a fracture to the base of his skull, multiple facial injuries and needed pins and plates in both arms after a fall from height. Meanwhile, a manager ended up with punctured lungs, a fractured pelvis and internal bleeding after a heavy steel box transported by a forklift fell on him.

Five thousand injured

The HSE says that in addition to those deaths there are over 5000 people injured in accidents involving workplace transport. For such carnage to be avoided, all employers need to take health and safety a lot more seriously at their premises and implement safe systems of working.

“For a start they should segregate pedestrians from traffic through the use of clearly-marked walkways,” says Dr Karen McDonnell, occupational health and safety policy adviser at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), and head of RoSPA Scotland.

The HSE suggests that markings and signs are complemented by guard rails and raised kerbs.

“Employers should also introduce a one-way system to minimise the need for trucks to reverse,” McDonnell continues. “And if reversing is unavoidable then areas where it can take place should be designated and clearly marked.”