DIY traffic management costs B&Q £230,000

Prosecutions and Claims |
15.09.2007

Poor site traffic handling, which put workers and the public at risk, has cost DIY chain B&Q £230,000. The failures came to light when environmental health officers (EHOs) at Leicester City Council investigated a forklift accident at the retailer's store in the city. 

B&Q employee Hussain Makda seriously injured his foot in August 2003 while he was acting as banksman for a fork-lift truck carrying goods for a customer across the store's car park. He jumped into the forklift's path while trying to avoid a 4x4 vehicle trying to overtake the slow-moving truck.

This is not B&Q's first traffic management conviction. In 2004, it landed fines and costs of £800,000 after a forklift ran over and killed an elderly customer inside its Poole store in June 2001. During that case, Bournemouth Crown Court heard that the control of forklift movements did not comply with the firm's own guidelines and that drivers regularly drove trucks inappropriately in public areas without using banksmen.

In the latest case, council officers found traffic routes in the store car park were poorly organised, there were no speed limits, signage was inadequate and the company was using an unsafe system of work for forklifts. The banksmen had not had sufficient training and on the day of Makda's accident they were not wearing high-visibility vests. Despite previous council warnings that generic B&Q traffic management assessments were not suitable for the Leicester store, there was still no site-specific assessment.

After the accident, council officers served an Improvement Notice requiring the company to improve its traffic management to comply with Regulation 17 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations. An EHO involved in the investigation told HSW that the retailer appealed against this and the Notice was eventually put on hold until after the prosecution. B&Q is now working to comply with its terms, she said.

During later store visits in June 2004 and May 2005, officers found more failures. These included the loading and unloading of goods on an adjacent slip road, which caused an obstruction; and storing goods on the pavement of the main customer access road, which meant people had to walk on
the road. 

On 27 July 2007, B&Q finally admitted three charges. Four days later, at Leicester Crown Court, Judge Lee fined it £40,000 under Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act for putting employees at risk by not implementing adequate arrangements to allow pedestrians and vehicles to circulate safely. The company also received fines of £15,000 and £25,000 under two separate charges - a year apart - of breaching Section 3(1) of the Act, in that by storing stock on pavements, it put the public at risk. B&Q must pay £150,000 costs.