HSE makes mobile plant plea

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has renewed its call for construction contractors to use mobile plant with caution after a man was struck and killed by a telehandler "during a reversing manoeuvre" last month.

Peter Prunic died in a fatal accident at a residential development at Hampden Hall in Wendover Road, Stoke Mandeville, Aylesbury on 24 July (CJ 2 August).

The HSE, which is handling the investigation into Prunic’s death, has warned that contractors should take care when using this type of equipment on site.

The body’s principal investigator for Buckinghamshire, Philip Poynter, said: "This tragic incident should alert all contractors to the inherent hazards involved in using mobile plant."

Poynter pointed to an earlier warning that the HSE had made regarding telehandlers late last year, which identified both reversing and poor pedestrian segregation as particular hazards as far as telehandlers were concerned, due to the machines’ poor visibility.

The HSE was unable to comment on the exact factors that led to Prunic’s death, but a spokeswoman said that, in general, her advice "would be that you have a banksman while reversing and segregated walkways at all times".

Telehandlers that have the type of driver blind spots described by the HSE can still comply with CE standards, therefore still posing a risk when reversing.

The machines are typically designed to the BS EN 1459:1998 standard, which requires further compliance with an international standard that deals with visibility (ISO/DIS 13564).