Overturned tractor: serious injuries: £20,000 fine
Health and Safety Executive v Bristol City Council (2015) Bristol magistrates’ court, April 28
Bristol City Council has been fined following an incident in which a park keeper suffered serious injuries when a tractor overturned.
Significant points of the case
• In May 2012 a park keeper employed by the Council was carrying out maintenance work in Netham Park, Bristol. She was driving a tractor with a trailer attached. As the vehicle descended a slope, it skidded and overturned. She was thrown from her seat and suffered a fractured pelvis and a damaged Achilles tendon.
• The tractor was not fitted with a seat belt or any type of restraint. The employer had not been given adequate training on the use of the tractor.
• The nearly new vehicle had been acquired by the Council shortly before the incident. No supplier training had been provided because the acquisition had been outside the normal procurement procedure.
Bristol City Council was fined £20,000 plus £4700 costs for breaches of regulations 9 and 26 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER), for failing to ensure that a person using work equipment had received adequate training and for failing to ensure that mobile work equipment had a suitable restraining system.
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