FALSE ENGAGEMENT
Page 34
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Following a fatality, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has issued a Safety Notice about the ‘false engagement’ of tipping hooks on skip lorries. The hooks clamp over bars near the base of the skip so the contents can be tipped out.
However, accident investigators believe that in this case the hooks engaged on a protruding part of the skip’s metal floor rather than the bars, but this was unseen by the driver operating the controls at the side of the truck.
As the tipping angle increased, the protruding floor section slipped out from the hooks, allowing the uncontrolled skip to swing rearwards, causing the whole truck to tip backwards and fall to one side, crushing the driver.
The HSE says any floor protrusions in the vicinity of the skip’s tipping bars must be removed and points out that the potential for the truck to overbalance by a swinging skip is increased “where there are shortcomings in the deployment, positioning or function of the stabilisers”.