A Lake District council has been fined £120,000 following the death of two women killed by rubbish trucks within the space of a year.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted South Lakeland District Council after an investigation determined that the local authority had failed in its duty to tackle the risks posed by the reversing vehicles.
Carlisle Crown Court heard how the first incident occurred on a single-track lane in Grasmere in June 2010. 54-year-old Mary Cook, from Nottingham, had been walking along the track whilst holidaying with her husband when the reversing vehicle struck her. She died as a result of her injuries.
The driver of the truck pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving in a separate prosecution. However, the investigation by the HSE also discovered that it was standard practice for the 7.5 rubbish trucks to reverse along the track to get to a holiday rental home with no council employees keeping watch behind the truck or guiding the driver.
The court was told that, following the incident, the council should have reviewed its bin collection rounds to eradicate any reversing wherever possible. Failing that, where there was no other option but to reverse, there should have been a council employee guiding drivers from behind vehicles, to ensure that there was no repeat of the incident.
However, this does not happen and reversing was actually introduced at a school in Windermere, where the following incident occurred.
The council had begun reversing its trucks onto the grounds of the school to collect the rubbish and, in March 2011, 58-year-old council employee Dorothy Harkes was walking behind one of the trucks to guide the driver. However suddenly, the truck struck her, and she suffered fatal injuries. The HSE’s investigation concluded that there had been no need for the council trucks to have been reversing on the school grounds.
South Lakeland District Council, based in Kendal, was fined £120,000 alongside costs of £50,000 after it pleaded guilty to two breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
HSE’s Principal Inspector for Cumbria and North Lancashire, Mark Dawson, spoke after the hearing. He said: “Both the drivers have already admitted their part in Mary and Dorothy’s deaths but our investigation found the council had not done all it should have to protect the public and their employees from the danger of reversing rubbish trucks.
“The lane that Mary Cook and her husband had been walking along was heavily used by holidaymakers and yet the council failed to make sure measures were in place so that its vehicles could reverse safely.
“What’s particularly disappointing is that the council actually introduced reversing as part of its collection of recycling waste from St Marys School, rather than trying to eliminate it wherever possible following Mary’s death.”