Steel Bar Jeopardizes Health and Safety at Work
An engineering firm in Darlington is being fined due to an incident with a delivery driver. The driver was severely injured when a steel bar stabbed into his chest. The man was 42 at the time of the incident that happened in 2008. He was delivering timber to Henry Williams Group on Dodsworth Street. The court heard that a swing barrier on the site that was six metres in length and 60 mm in diameter was left open by the Henry Williams Group. This helped workers making a delivery gain access.
The worker was reversing his delivery lorry into the site in order to unload the timber. He was going to drive back through the gate after the goods were dropped. Unfortunately, the barrier had swung back a little way to where it was not in the driver’s vision. When the bar hit the front of the delivery truck, it went through the windscreen and into the chest of the driver.
The driver was able to recover from the incident over a ten-week period. Following this incident, the HSE conducted health and safety audits to determine the risks of such an incident occurring. It was found that the workstation risk assessments did not properly deal with driving on or off site as there was not a proper way to secure the barrier. This allowed it to swing into an open position or partially closed position, resulting in the incident.
