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HSE issues a fine after teacher left injured after being run over by delivery van

In February 2016, a teacher was stood in front of St Andrew's College in Cambridge when a delivery driver employed by St Andrew's Tutorial Services Ltd, failed to spot the teacher and reversed over her. The delivery driver only stopped his delivery vehicle after members of the public alerted him to the incident. The teacher sustained multiple fractures and crush injuries; it has been reported that her head was just inches away from one of the tyres.

An investigation by the HSE found that although St Andrew's Tutorial Services Ltd had identified measures that would have prevented the accident, they did not implement those measures and vehicles and pedestrians were not adequately segregated.

St Andrew's Tutorial Services Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 17(1) of the Workplace Health & Safety and Welfare Regulations. The company was fined £30,000 and ordered to pay costs of £9,197.78.

Forbes comment

According to the HSE inspector, Sandra Dias, the accident was completely avoidable and occurred as a result of a failure to implement safe systems of work which resulted in a "visiting driver to carry out his own flawed assessment and an unsafe manoeuvre, resulting in horrific injuries to a teacher".

Organisations must ensure that they carry out detailed risk assessments and that they also take steps to ensure that the control measures highlighted in those risk assessments are implemented. It is essential that suitable safety measures are imposed to ensure vehicles and pedestrians are kept segregated as far as possible to prevent accidents from occurring.

Possible recommendations for dealing with vehicles on site include, implementing a one way system to prevent reversing, adequate signposting of crossing points, strict parking restrictions, enforcing speed limits of no more than 5mph, restricting deliveries to outside of school hours where possible and providing a banksman to supervise the movement of delivery vehicles. Further advice on site safety can be found on the HSE website here.

Source: https://press.hse.gov.uk/2020/01/10/teaching-company-fined-after-teacher-run-over-by-delivery-van

For more information contact Ridwaan Omar in our Education department via email or phone on 01254 222457. Alternatively send any question through to Forbes Solicitors via our online Contact Form.

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