Posted By tina I have recently had a problem with a Car Wash bisines in which the parking outside (on double yellow lines) is causing road rage. The HSE state it is the police who should deal with this. The Police say it is Highways, and Highways just want to give out parking tickets. Recently there was a case in which a FLT fatality, on the highway was prosecuted by the HSE. (After criticism by the CPS (HSE stated it should be the police) the HSE were forced to take responsibility for the case) What was this case, so I may refer to it? Thanks

Posted By Martin Gray Tina It seems that you want a definitive answer and there is not one. Parking offences have been decriminalised and many local authorities now employ the traffic wardens, if the vehicles queueing are considered by the police to be a danger to other road users then they can cause the vehicles to be moved. If there is a clear view past the queueing vehicles this would be difficult to enforce, and just creates a public nuisance. You could contact your local authority and ask them to have words with the car wash, you could also speak with them and ask them if they can put up notices asking drivers not to queue on the road. Your second part to your response was to do with a road traffic collision, the police do investigate fatal, serious and injury RTC's on the highway, and will submit a file to the Crown Prosecution Service for them to decide on whether to prosecute or not. At the same time the HSE can investigate any breaches of the H&S at Work Act legislation against the company or even the offender, this is totally different to the police case. We currently have a case in court this week involving a company (A) who are being prosecuted for H&S breaches but the a driver from a different company (B) was prosecuted for Death by dangerous driving and received 2.5 years several months ago. Company (A) are being prosecuted by the HSE not the police whereas driver from Company (B) was prosecuted by the police and not the HSE

Posted By ken mosley The case to which you referred was the death of Omar Akhtar who was killed when a FLT struck his car on the public highway in Manchester in August 1997. He was driving down a one way street when the FLT emerged from a timber yard with its forks raised 4 feet off the ground. The forks smashed through the windscreen at head height and as a result he died the next day from his injuries. After the death the HSE refused to accept that it was their duty investigate and referred the family to Trafford MBC. They insisted, correctly, that it was within the remit of HSE, as it was a workplace death to a member of the public as a result of the working activities of the timber yard. The HSE accepted that this was their duty to investigate, eventually, but still refused to do so. It took until April 2000 for a judicial review to decide that the HSE had failed in their duty. It was left to the police to bring charges against the FLT driver, which the court imposed a small fine. There is alot of info on varios legal websites on this case. Try www.gmhazards.org.uk or put AKHTAR into your search engine.