City council fined £20k after park keeper thrown off tractor

Bristol City Council has been ordered to pay almost £25,000 after a park keeper suffered serious injuries when she was thrown from a tractor as it overturned.

The incident at Netham Park on 30 May 2012 saw the 51-year-old worker break her pelvis and badly damage an Achilles tendon.

She remained off work for a year but has since returned and is undertaking an office job.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted the council after investigating the incident.

Bristol Magistrates’ Court was told at a hearing on 28 April that the park keeper, who was carrying out maintenance work, was driving the tractor with a trailer attached and had braked as the tractor descended a slope.

The vehicle skidded and she turned to avoid a fence but it overturned, throwing her from the seat.

The HSE investigation found that:

• The tractor had been not fitted with a seat belt or any type of restraint and the council had failed to ensure their employee had received adequate training on the use of the tractor.
• The nearly new tractor and trailer had been acquired by the local authority shortly before the incident but outside the normal procurement procedure – “as a result, no supplier training was provided”.

The Magistrates’ Court fined the city council £20,000 and ordered it to pay £4,700 in costs after the local authority admitted two breaches of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.

HSE inspector Kate Leftly, said: “This incident was entirely preventable and has caused the worker considerable suffering and distress. She had trained three years for her park keeper role but is now office-bound and will need further surgery on the tendon requiring a 12-18 month recovery.

“Every year, there are accidents involving transport in the workplace, some of which result in people being injured or even killed. People fall from vehicles, are knocked down, run over, or crushed against fixed parts, plant and trailers.

“Bristol City Council had inadequate systems in place to ensure operators were suitably trained in the use of this equipment and failed to identify the need for a suitable seat restraint.”