Road haulage company fined after lorry incident in Nuneaton

A Nuneaton-based road haulage company has been fined £90,000 following the death of a cyclist caused by an unsecured load falling from one of its vehicles.

On 18 June 2021, a lorry operated by JW Morley Transport was travelling down College Street in Nuneaton carrying four heavy metal heat exchangers weighing more than 10,000kg.

As the vehicle rounded a bend, the load shifted, causing a securing strap to snap.

One of the heat exchangers fell from the lorry and struck 70-year-old Christopher Baker, who was cycling alongside.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that the load had not been properly secured.

The heat exchangers were considered unstable, and the straps used were worn and inadequate for the task, with HSE stating the incident was “foreseeable and entirely preventable.”

Nina Day, senior policy advisor in the transport & public services Unit of HSE said: “The lorry should not have entered the public road network. At that point, there was an immediate and likely risk of harm to other road users, pedestrians, and the driver himself. The fatal load shift was due to the grossly inadequate manner of loading and securing the load, and was both foreseeable and entirely preventable.

“If the heat exchangers had each been placed inside a metal or wooden transport frame and secured with a minimum of three webbing straps each, with friction matting between the transport frame and the load bed, the load would not have shifted under normal driving conditions.”

The driver involved had not received training in load security, and no formal securing method was provided by JW Morley Transport for the high-risk load.

JW Morley Transport, based at Sole End Farm Industrial Estate, Nuneaton, Bedworth, pleaded guilty to breaching section 3(1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

The company was also ordered to pay £8,047.55 in costs at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court.