Narrow street: Unsafe

Find out how this scenario can be made safer

Site description

The site is a small manufacturing company in the centre of town. Their deliveries arrive at the rear of the building in a narrow street. A staff exit is situated next to this delivery point. The road is private property but often the public committed trespass; using it as a 'rat run'.

The accident

At dusk on December 24th a construction worker drove a dumper truck from a nearby building site down the narrow street. A forklift truck unloading a lorry was forced to reverse rapidly. The fork truck driver did not see the young worker leaving from the rear staff exit and hit him with the rear of his vehicle.

The consequences

The young worker was pinned by the forklift truck against the wall and was killed instantly. The company was fined £30,000 and the fork truck driver was forced to take several weeks off work suffering from stress.