Lorry load safety fears
Recent checks on lorry loads found three quarters unsafe - 4th May 2009
Recent safety checks in England and Wales found that
three quarters of lorries stopped were not safely
loaded, putting other road users in danger, and
workers unloading at an increased risk of suffering
a
workplace accident.
The Vehicle
Operator Services Agency (VOSA) and
the Health and
Safety Executive (HSE) combined over the course
of three days to stop 40 vehicles in Wrexham,
Birmingham and Humberside, where most vehicles which
were unsafe were made safe quickly by the drivers
with little action needed.
Accidents at work while
loading or unloading vehicles has accounted for 14
lives over the last three years, with a further
2,000 suffering injury.
These often avoidable
injuries at work are often caused by falling
objects, manual handling or
falls form height after loads shift during
transit when they have not been secured correctly.
Unstable loads could also cause vehicles to overturn
if there is a sudden shift in the weight
distribution, putting not only the driver in danger
but also others in the vicinity.
Better loading and restraining would not only reduce
the risk of workers
suffering injury, it would also benefit the
owners of the goods being transported by reducing
damage caused by not being secured properly.
A spokesperson for
the Freight Transport Association (FTA) said:
“Overloaded or badly loaded lorries can present a
real health risk if they are not managed properly,
both during unloading and while in transit. It is of
major concern that people are still being killed by
something that can be prevented so easily and we
fully support the work of HSE and VOSA to help
reduce future tragedies occurring.”
