Fine for Royal Mail worker death reduced due to financial difficulties

Royal Mail has been fined £90,000 and ordered to pay costs of £42,000 this week, following the death in 2006 of an employee.

The prosecution follows the death of 57-year-old yard shunter, Colin Smith, who was killed in September 2006 at Royal Mail’s Heathrow Worldwide Distribution Centre (HWDC).

Royal Mail Group Ltd was ordered to pay £90,000 and costs of £42,549.56 for breaching Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 at Reading Crown Court.

The incident happened when a Royal Mail HGV driver was reversing his tractor to line up with a trailer unit parked at a loading bay at HWDC. After lining up his vehicle, the driver left his cab and walked to the back of the unit to complete the manoeuvre but found Mr Smith had been trapped between the tractor and the trailer. Mr Smith had been removing a lock from the trailer at the time and suffered fatal injuries.

On 1 March 2010, the other driver was found not guilty of breaching Section 7 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

The judge said the fine for Royal Mail had been reduced to take into account the company’s financial difficulties. He commented:

“The penalty is no way a measure of the value of the life that has been lost. I do not consider in this case that the Royal Mail caused Colin Smith ‘s death. I take the view if steps had been taken it might have been averted. Not that it would have been. It would have been a fine of £120,000 but in light of the pleas it will be £90,000.”

He added:

“No one has suggested that this was anything other than an accident. It has not been suggested that any individual employee of Royal Mail displayed a cavalier attitude towards health and safety.”

The Royal Mail’s defence said the company had taken a number of steps to improve safety since the accident.

Karl Howes, HSE Inspector, commented:

“This was a tragic accident which could have been easily prevented if Royal Mail had exercised proper control of vehicle activities at the Heathrow Distribution Centre.

“The company failed to adequately assess the risk to shunters working in the yard or to identify and rectify the unsafe system and this contributed to Mr Smith’s death. In areas where vehicles are manoeuvring, employers have a legal duty to ensure that work can be done safely. Royal Mail’s guilty plea demonstrates that they acknowledge the failings and since the accident they have put measures in place to prevent a recurrence.”

In 2008/09, 25 people were killed at work as a result of being hit by vehicles.