The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have this month warned vehicle repair and maintenance engineers of the dangers of working under vehicles, after Dennis Eagle Limited, a Warwick-based manufacturer of refuse collection vehicles, were fined a total of £188,612 for offences relating to the death of a worker. Simon Rose, a field service engineer for the company was fatally injured whilst working on a "DENNIS" refuse vehicle on 24 May 2006.
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 forward over him, causing massive head injuries.
An investigation revealed 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 other conditions faced by field service engineers. Supervision of the company's engineers was also found to be inadequate.
Speaking after the case, HSE Inspector Lyn Spooner said, "This case demonstrates the importance of not leaving workers to their own devices. Simon Rose was a very experienced and competent engineer, who was working logically to solve a problem. However in the absence of suitable safe systems of work to provide adequate instruction, and in the absence of adequate equipment, Simon was forced to improvise, which he probably had to do on numerous occasions."
