Southwark Council were fined the maximum £20,000 yesterday (Wednesday) after a disabled 67 year-old man plunged to his death from the back of a welfare bus, after his motor scooter suddenly shot backwards.
The local authority had taken the pensioner and others from the Aylesbury Day Centre, Walworth, on a day out to Alexandra Palace, (pictured) Haringey, but tragedy struck in the car park when Mr. Delaney fell from a tail lift, suffering fatal head injuries.
Southwark were prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive and admitted at City of London Magistrates’ Court to failing in their duty to carry out a risk assessment and draw up safe procedures for loading those in motorized scooters on September 20, 2006.
“This was a vulnerable person who died as the direct result of a breach by Southwark Council,” prosecutor Mr. Zameer Bhunnoo told the court.
The authority was criticized for having no official risk policy in place despite a warning circulated by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency in 2005, following similar fatal incidents across the country.
The group, made up of local residents with mobility issues, who otherwise would be confined to their homes, had just enjoyed the Independent Living Exhibition.
Mr. Delaney was sitting in his motorized scooter as it was raised on the rear tail lift.
“The motorized scooter went backwards over the tailgate plates and he fell,” explained Mr. Bhunnoo. “We don’t know if Mr. Delaney put it in reverse or if gravity and the weight of bags hanging from the scooter caused him to go backwards.”
Later tests showed the scooter was too large to be safely secured in place by the tailgate plates.
The JP’s also ordered Southwark to pay £4,466 costs.
Afterwards Mr. Bhunnoo said:” Had basic health and safety measures been carried out, this loss of life could've been prevented.
“A suitable risk assessment and safe procedure should have been drawn up covering the loading and unloading of people who use motorised scooters, who are loaded on and off welfare buses."
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