Posted By Jerry Lucey Hi Alex, When you employ an Operator of Fitter you should check their competence which includes training as well as experiance. It sounds, from your comments Alex, that you have verified that they have been trained and this is great, but it is worth checking on their personnel record that there is proof that they were experianced. Under Common Law there is a duty to provide 'competent fellow workers' and as the fitter was injured by the actions of the operator this comes into play and proving competence becomes important. I would question the Operator's training in that he 'jumped down' and hid under the bank. I would have thought that the proper action in such a situation would be for the Operator to remain in the cab/ cockpit of the machine and brace his legs underneath the steering wheel. If someone jumps from a machine they are likely to fall in the same direction as the machine and sustain a worse injury. You may find that the operator was not acting as instructed. You also mention that the crane operator parked on a steep slope and went home, again this is in contravention with his training as well as your site rules. Such plant should only be parked on a steep slope when unavoidable and then wheels should be chocked. It would be useful if you had evidence of this element of the site rules being brought to the operator's attention. The fact that the crane operator had been inducted is important as familiarisation training is important. On the site memo does it state that the Depot Manager must be informed prior to the call out. This is important as informing the Depot Manager prior to the call out might suggest that the purpose of the call is to gain authorisation. It is also important to ascertain what the required repair entailed. Is there the possibility that the fault caused the accident? was their the opportunity to allow the crane to drive/ roll onto level ground prior to attempting to repair it? I would also check that your risk assessment of the area and crane use covers the risks associated with the drop from which the crane rolled. Your management response appears to have been very good Alex, however I would interview the driver in hospital. I also think that your reporting and logging of inspections is excellent and will prove that the equipment is well maintained. Mechanical Failure occurs and you are only expected to act as a reasonable employer. I do feel that the key is to interview the driver and try to identify indescrepencies between the statement. It may be worth organising an independant engineering inspecition and compare the result of this inspection with the witness statements. Hope this helps and good luck

Posted By garyh Co-operate fully with HSE, then throw the book at the people involved. Also throw the book at their Manager - ask him when was the last time they audited that job in the field? What is the procedure for monitoring compliance? Often when you investigate you find that this sort of bending the rules creeps in and becomes the norm. Managers (and Safety people!) allow this to hapen either by design or neglect (eg not auditing or doing spot checks) - so incidents like this could be Management failure in my view.

Posted By alex mccreadie Thanks everyone at present for your posts. This is what makes being a IOSH member off whatever grade worthwhile. We can all pretend we know everything but there is always someone prepared to add something that can assist. Keep the posts coming and thanks again Alex