A contract haulier was stretching his lorry container when he noticed the doors were not shut and secured. He climbed onto the rear trailer to re-secure them without ensuring that he had safe access, slipped through the centre of the trailer and his left leg (beside the knee) made contact with part of the metal structure, lacerating it.
He was seen shouting out in pain whilst coming up to the weighbridge office. The driver had a cut of approximately 3 inches in his left leg that was bleeding heavily. First aid was administered by the local site team - they contacted emergency services and were advised to transport the driver to the hospital by car. Two people went including a trained first aider.
An accident book entry was made. The lorry was switched-off and secured, photographs and evidence were gathered for the investigation. Contact was made with logistics, the management team, the safety officer and rep.
The images below show the back of the trailer with the open door of the container and, the where the driver's leg made contact with the centre rail of the trailer.
Further investigation confirmed
- There had been a light shower of rain during the time he was at site waiting to be loaded.
- The driver was booked in to load at 10:00hrs but arrived at 10:45hrs and had a short wait before loading commenced.
- The driver noticed the doors were not closed, but he made the decision not to “shorten” the trailer again (which would have given safe access to the container doors from ground level) as there had been difficulty in gaining traction when stretching the trailer.
- The driver accessed his rear trailer frame without safe access (fall from height risk).
- The driver lost his footing leading to leg making contact with a metal centre rail of the trailer structure.