A company working at London Heathrow Airport has been fined £90,000 after an engineer was crushed to death by an electric vehicle at the airport.
The victim was maintenance engineer Mohammed Taj, 52, who was killed after a “tug” vehicle used for pulling baggage and supplies fell on his head during an inspection.
According to the BBC, Mr Taj was checking the brakes on the vehicle but there was no other support holding the vehicle during his inspection when it fell on to him.
Aviance UK admitted to breaking Health and Safety legislation at the Old Bailey, Judge Richard Hawkins stating that “The company was shown on this occasion to have fallen short of its duty of care”.
Under the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 working equipment is required to be suitable for purpose and a duty which is imposed on the worker’s employer in respect of that work equipment. In this situation, Mr Taj was working on the vehicle which had only been jacked up from the rear and as such had not been properly secured for him to work on safely. It may have been appropriate to put in place clamps on the vehicle to stop the risk of it falling.
It should be noted that the Judge did acknowledge that Aviance UK had not deliberately flouted the law, and that the company were acknowledged to have had a very good safety record prior to the accident. However, this outlines the importance of companies undergoing risk assessments on all aspects of their business, particularly where the company’s work is labour orientated, to try and minimise the risk of work related accidents and, as a consequence, injuries occurring.
