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Contractor guilty in First ever driver fatigue (Death) case by the (ORR) The Office of Rail and Road

A contractor has been ordered to pay £750,000 in fines and costs for failing to ensure two of its workers were sufficiently rested to work and travel safely after they were killed in a crash on the A1 near Newark.

Zac, 20, and Michael, 48, died on 19 June 2013 when the driver fell asleep at the wheel of his work van while driving back to Doncaster after a night shift in Stevenage. His employer, had instructed the men to take on an extra job following a request from Network Rail without considering whether it had sufficiently rested employees.

The pair crashes into a parked van, while driving back to Doncaster after a night shift in Stevenage. He had been awake for around 26 hours.

Due to the temptation and peer group pressure being applied the pair did not turn any work down.

The Crown Court was told Zac, who like his colleague was employed on a zero-hours contract, was suffering the effects of fatigue and may have fallen asleep at the wheel or experienced ‘microsleeps,’ which hugely increased the risk of a traffic accident.

The company did not follow its own fatigue management procedures, nor did it comply with the working time limits for safety critical work, such as welding, which insist there should be a ‘minimum rest period of 12 hours between booking off from a turn of duty to booking on for the next’, and it did not conduct a sufficient and suitable risk assessment of Zac’s fatigue.

He was also permitted to drive, despite the company’s insurance policy that stipulated only over 25s may drive their vehicles, and heard evidence from other members of staff that the policy was routinely flouted.

The Office of Rail and Road’s (ORR) investigation found that the companies policies and procedures were particularly inadequate because employees were on zero hours contracts, and these contracts created an obvious incentive for employees to volunteer for work when they were too tired as they were only paid for the shifts they worked.

This is the first time that ORR has brought a prosecution in relation to failures of fatigue management.

In March, Renown Consultants was found guilty of failing to discharge its duty under sections 2 and 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act and regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations and was therefore guilty of an offence contrary to Section 33 of the Act.

Wednesday 13 May, the firm was ordered to £150,000 for each of the three breaches, plus £300,000 in costs.

Operations and managers knew what they were supposed to do in relation to fatigue but lip service was paid to these systems,’ The Judge added. ‘Senior operations cut corners and I found blindness in relation to people driving to and from jobs.

A sleepy driver on a long drive home puts himself at serious risk. I cannot move up the harm category so I must consider the starting point.’

The court was told the firm’s turnover was in the £2-£10m category, so is therefore a small business, and the starting point would be £250,000. However, as two men died and the public were put at risk, he set the starting point at £500,000.

He outlined mitigating factors; The comany changed its policy immediately after the accident, and had a good health and safety record with no previous convictions, and so reduced the fine to £450,000.

He gave the firm two and a half years to pay the penalty.

For the full details see bit.ly/IOSH-renoun