The Council had a central drop off point for all hospital roll cages in Nottingham. When full the drop off area would have about 200 cages.

When the Claimant arrived with his delivery of cages there was only one row left to use. He parked his trailer there.

On going in the back of the trailer, he released a strap and pulled two cages towards him and they then rolled down and struck him off the back of his trailer.

We argued that the only inference which could be made was that he had parked on uneven ground with a gradient which had caused the trailers to roll down.

The Judge accepted our main allegations, namely :

  • they had no risk assessments in place in breach of regulation 3 Management of Health and Safety at Work regulations and an adequate assessment would have revealed the risk of parking on uneven ground, and led to warning signs prohibiting parking there.

  • they failed to keep the area free from congestion and thus the area was a trap in that people were forced to park there which represented a breach of Regulation 12 of the Workplace Regs.

 

The Claimant was 20% to blame for failing to check where he had parked was safe.

8th April 2009, Mansfield County Court.