Anne Smith, 61, was killed in pedestrianised Cranbourne Street, Brighton, last Monday, as she walked to work around 6.25am.
A refuse collection vehicle reversed into her from nearby West Street, as she walked to work. Mrs Smith was taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital but later died from her injuries.
The truck belonged to private waste contractor Team Waste Southern, which has declined to comment.
From 2001/02 to 2005/06, there have been 51 deaths in the waste and recycling industry: |
Fatalities
This is the seventh fatality reported to the HSE involving reversing waste/ recycling collection vehicles, since December 2005.
In September 2006, the Health and Safety Commission, in partnership with local authorities and a range of companies in the industry, drew-up the guidance document “Waste and recycling vehicles in street collection”, in September 2006, to try and reduce the number of accidents.
In the section on reversing vehicles, contractors are advised to to avoid busy times on main roads when collecting rubbish, and to avoid reversing into the sun.
The guidelines also suggest that managers monitor work including investigations on near misses and that they provide instructions to staff 58so safe systems of work are clearly understood.
The report places emphasis on reversing assistants – trained employees who stand on the pavement and give directions to the driver via hand signals.
Managers are advised to make sure each crew has one assistant unless a risk assessment has firmly established they are not needed.
Improvements
The HSE was unable to confirm if Team Waste Southern had a reversing assistant for fear of compromising the investigation but a spokesman said: “The annual statistics continue to show that the waste and recycling industry has an unacceptably high accident rate.
“However, there are an increasing number of organisations in both the public and private sector that have reported dramatic improvements in their performance.
“Clearly, if these successes can be repeated across the industry then individual cases of pain and suffering will fall greatly.”
The HSE said some organizations have reported annual improvements of more than 20% in reducing all types of accidents.
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Action followed an alert issued from the HSE to the waste and recycling industry, in March 2006, after nine people were killed in eight weeks, between December 21, 2005 and February 21, 2006.
They included a binman who was hit by a car when collecting wheelie bins in Bournemouth and a fork lift truck operator who was crushed when his vehicle overturned in a scrap yard in Lowestoft, Suffolk.
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