Haulage firm where worker fatally hurt had serious and systemic safety failings

Shane Smithyman, of Rugeley, suffered fatal injuries when he became trapped between a poorly maintained Volvo tractor unit used as a "shunter" and a trailer at Hawkins Logistics Ltd based at Redbrook Industrial Estate on November 22, 2019. He died in hospital four days later.

The company admitted a single offence of being an employer, failing to ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all its employees in that it breached health and safety standards in the workplace.

Prosecuting on behalf of Cannock Chase Council, Mr Mark Jackson said the tyre fitter, aged 29, was hurt after moving a trailer using the "defective shunter" tractor cab. He said CCTV footage showed Mr Smithyman alighting and carrying out coupling activities before the Volvo which had "defective brakes" rolled, trapping him between the unit and an adjacent parked HGV at about 9am.

Mr Jackson told the hearing at Telford Magistrates Court on Wednesday(20): "There were lots of systemic failings that gave the general picture of what was happening at Hawkins, but these were not the direct cause of death."

"The tractor unit was in a poor state of repair. The defect reporting was not adequate or effective. It had come into the company's possession after failing the MoT which is an example of the defendant failing to ensure the health and safety of its employees," Mr Jackson added.

He said there was evidence of a lack of health and safety risk assessments and training, a lack of control measures at the Redbrook Lane site with footage showing vehicles being driven too fast in the yard, drivers engaging in "horseplay", and an incomplete vehicle inspection report relating to the Volvo shunter. Mr Jackson said the firm's operations were a "significant health and safety risk".