Plasmor sentenced over tipper fatality

Widnes-based concrete block manufacturer fined £100,000 following death of tipper truck driver

CONCRETE block and block paving manufacturers Plasmor (Halton) Ltd have been fined £100,000 after a deliver driver was crushed to death when a tipper truck overturned at the company’s production plant in Widnes.

Plasmor were prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after an investigation found the company failed to have a safety system in place for the delivery of raw materials, despite several tipper trucks coming on to the site every day.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that David Astley had driven a truck of limestone dust to the plant on 13 July 2013. As he was tipping the load another truck arrived at the plant with a second load of limestone. The second driver was told to empty his truck in the same place but, as he raised the trailer, it overturned and fell on top of Mr Astley’s cab, killing him instantly.

The HSE investigation found that Plasmor had failed to carry out a risk assessment for the work and should have made sure vehicles were kept a safe distance apart. The person who directed the drivers on to the site had also not received suitable training.

Plasmor were fined £100,000 and ordered to pay costs of £28,634 after pleading guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

In mitigation, the company stated that during the investigation it was ascertained that the accident was caused by a number of factors, including: a puncture on the rear trailer of the overturning vehicle; worn chassis pivots on the overturning vehicle; 66% of the load of limestone dust remaining ‘hung’ in the tipper at the point where it was fully raised; and a 2.5% slope on the roadway where the overturning vehicle was tipping.

However, the HSE contended that although these factors caused the vehicle to overturn, the death of the driver in the other vehicle could have been avoided had Plasmor been operating an exclusion zone in the tipping area to prohibit two vehicles unloading in close proximity. The company accepted this argument and pleaded guilty on that basis.

Since the accident a significant number of changes have been made to working practices in the aggregates reception area at Widnes, to bring operational standards into line with the rest of the Plasmor Group.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Jane Carroll said: ‘Mr Astley sadly lost his life because Plasmor hadn’t considered the risks facing drivers who arrived on the site. The company should have known there was a danger of tipper trucks overturning, and created exclusion zones to minimize the risk of anyone being injured. Instead, two drivers were allowed to empty their trailers next to each other.

‘Plasmor have since changed their procedures so staff are properly trained and tipper trucks are kept at least 20m apart. If this system had been in place at the time of the incident, then Mr Astley’s death could have been avoided.’