A court case opened at Luton Crown Court last week (5 March) with F and R Cawley pleading not guilty to charges under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
The case centres on an incident where a driver with 20 years’ experience was killed when he was dragged under the wheels of his runaway lorry (a refuse collection vehicle), a jury heard last Thursday.
Peter Coleman, 54, was working alone at the Woodside Leisure Park in Kingsway, Watford when he tried to stop the Volvo lorry rolling down an embankment.
The father-of-two, from Dunstable, was fatally injured after becoming trapped under the rear axle.
The Cawley refuse collection vehicle at Woodside Leisure Park in Watford (picture: Gail D’Almaine)
Prosecutor Vivek D’Cruz told Luton crown court: “He was trapped for some considerable time before being freed. Tragically, he passed away a short time later in hospital.”
Not guilty plea
Mr Coleman’s employers, the waste collection company F and R Cawley Limited of Covent Garden Close, Luton, plead not guilty to four charges of failing to discharge a duty under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
Opening the case to the jury of 6 men and 6 women, Mr D’Cruz said Mr Coleman became trapped under the lorry early in the morning of Saturday 11 October 2014 (see letsrecycle.com story)
He said: “Mr Coleman was driving on his own. It was a refuse collection vehicle that had the facility to lift bins. While he was operating the lift, the vehicle started to drive itself.
“In a panic, to stop the runaway vehicle, he chased and fell and got caught under its wheels.”
Experienced
Mr Coleman was knowledgeable and experienced, having worked in refuse collection for 20 years. On that day he was on a route that would take him to 20 different sites where he would operate a mechanism that lifted bins and tipped their contents into the back of the lorry, the court was told by Mr D’Cruz.
The prosecutor said Mr Coleman drove into Woodside Leisure Park, which was his first stop, at about seven minutes past six in the morning. CCTV from the site showed him reversing into an alley to the bin area. As he was operating the lifting system the lorry began to move away.
“It was driverless and moved towards a downward and sloping embankment. He desperately chased the vehicle. He was unable to get into it before it dropped over an embankment where it came to rest.
“He was pulled under the rear offside axis,” said the prosecutor.
Ignition
There was an explosion and tyres were on fire. Police, fire fighters and ambulance crew were despatched. One fire fighter turned off the ignition and put the lorry into neutral Mr D’Cruz noted.
Mr Coleman was freed and airlifted to hospital, where he died.
Continuing his opening, Mr D’Cruz said that maintenance records from 2013 and 2104 showed there were continued problems with the state of the brakes on the lorry.
He said: “The prosecution say there is clear and compelling evidence that when the incident occurred the vehicle was in a fundamentally unsafe state.”
Mr D’Cruz went on: “Firstly, the brakes on the second axle were so defective they were deemed unroadworthy and would not have passed an MOT test.
“The second key failure related to the wiring in relation to a key safety system that had been interfered with, allowing the emergency stop system to be bypassed.
“The E-stop system prevented the bin lift being operated when the vehicle was in gear. Had that system not been bypassed it would not have been possible to operate the bin lift while vehicle was in gear.”
The jury had been told a fire fighter that once the blaze had been put out and fire fighter had turned off the ignition and put the gears into neutral.
Alexander Stein is defending the case. The case continues and the jury has been told the case could go on to 1 May.
(Court reporting by South Bedfordshire News Agency)
The post Court case opens into Watford vehicle fatality appeared first on letsrecycle.com.
Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
