Company fined after load falls and kills cyclist

A Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV), operated by JW Morley Transport Ltd, was driving down College Street, Nuneaton, on 18 June 2021 carrying four heat exchangers weighing over 10,000kg, when as it went round a bend, the load shifted in the vehicle causing one of the straps securing the load to snap.

This resulted in one of the heat exchangers falling from the lorry, killing 70 year old Christopher Baker, who was cycling alongside the vehicle.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation revealed that the heat exchangers were inadequately secured on the vehicle, which made the load prone to toppling, and the ratchet straps used to secure the load were in poor condition.

HSE provides guidance on load securing online at: Workplace transport safety – Workplace transport safety – A guide to workplace transport safety

Nina Day, senior policy advisor in the Transport & Public Services Unit of HSE said: “The lorry should not have entered the public road network. At the point it did there was an immediate and likely risk of harm to other road users, pedestrians, and the driver himself. The fatal load shift was due to the grossly inadequate manner of loading and securing the load, and was both foreseeable and entirely preventable.

“If the heat exchangers had each been placed inside a metal or wooden transport frame and secured with a minimum of three webbing straps each, with friction matting between the transport frame and the load bed, the load would not have shifted under normal driving conditions.”

The investigation also found that although the driver was trained in driving Heavy Goods category C he had not received training in load security, which would have equipped him with the means to devise a suitable securing scheme for an unusual and high-risk load like the heat exchangers , nor had he been provided with a securing scheme by JW Morley Transport Ltd.

Mr Baker’s widow Rose made a victim personal statement to HSE. She said “June 18th 2021 is a date that will forever live in our memories. That was the day we lost my Chris, my husband of over 54 years, my best friend and my soulmate. We did everything together both as a couple and as a family. We have always been a very close family, and it feels that the very heart of it has been ripped out.

“Chris and I had plans for our retirement after working so hard for so many years. Our children and grandchildren were our priority and now that precious time has been taken from them. No amount of words will ever express how we all feel. We are heartbroken, devastated and really don’t think we will ever be the same again”.

JW Morley Transport Ltd whose business is based at Sole End Farm Industrial Estate, Astley Lane, Bedworth, pleaded guilty to breaching section 3(1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974. They were fined £90,000 and ordered to pay £8,047.55 in costs at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court.

This prosecution was brought by HSE enforcement lawyer Edward Parton and paralegal officer Helen Hugo.