Telehandler Death

A telehandler driver died on Wednesday 20^th July when his machine toppled over on a building site in Newbury.

It is understood the 41-year-old Oxfordshire man was crushed after the machine overturned, spilling its load onto the roadway.

Shoppers in the town centre heard a loud bang at 9.10am as the vehicle fell over.

Thames Valley Police spokesman confirmed that the driver was pronounced dead at the scene. She said: “We do not have any more information about the man yet, but the Health and Safety Executive have been informed. The investigation is ongoing.”

Work was immediately halted at the £150m shopping complex, set to open in October, and workers at the site were sent home.

A spokesperson for the company involved, said: “We can confirm that there has been an accident, which has sadly resulted in the fatality of one of our site team. “Our sincere condolences are with the family at this difficult time and we are assisting the authorities in every way we can.”

Clearly the HSE will produce its findings in due course, but in the meantime we should all conduct some simple housekeeping to ensure that when using Telehandlers or Mobile Elevated Working Platforms that we do so in a safe manner. These simple checks may help:

• Machine Pre Start Checks conducted Daily.
• 6-Monthly LOLER certification in date.
• Service & maintenance conducted as per the manufacturer’s instructions by a competent contractor.
• Harnesses and lanyards utilised when required and specified.
• Operative trained and certificated / carded eg IPAF PAL Card see IPAF www.ipaf.co.uk for more details.
• Site Specific risk assessment to consider eg ground conditions, local obstructions and the proximity of over head cables etc.