Safety Alert: Preventing movement of lorries whilst they are being loaded

An employee died while loading lorry.   The victim was operating a forklift truck at the company’s site and was fatally injured when the lorry he was loading was moved by the lorry driver.  This pulled the forklift truck over and trapped the forklift operator underneath.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the duty holder’s risk assessment failed to take into account the possibility of lorries moving while they are being loaded. HSE also found that the systems of work provided for ensuring that vehicles were not moved during loading activities were inadequate.

HSE inspector John Boyle commented: “This incident could have been avoided by implementing the correct control measures and safe working practices.”

https://press.hse.gov.uk/2023/03/30/600000-fine-for-company-after-employee-died-while-loading-lorry/

ICHCA International is committed to helping industry to learn lessons fast, learn them once and make sure that they stay learnt.  This information is intended to provide all organisations in the cargo supply chain with the opportunity to consider the events and to review and adapt their own health and safety control measures to proactively prevent future incidents.

We are grateful to Health & Safety Executive (HSE) for providing details.  We acknowledge their commitment to sharing learning to benefit others.  If you have similar operations, please share this information with managers, operatives and any potentially affected third parties as appropriate.  Please also review any of your relevant operations for similar hazardous conditions, risks, and controls.  Learning content like this is highly valuable as it is based on real-world experience.  We encourage everyone with publishable information about incidents to send it to us, so that we can raise awareness across the whole industry.  Please contact us at secretariat@ichca.com; sharing your insight could save a life or prevent injury.