While we have reported a tenth consecutive week employee and contractor Lost Time Injury (LTI) and Recordable Injury (TRI) free, we have experienced two incidents recently (both in UK Asphalt) that remind us of the importance of always putting safety first.

In one of the incidents, on Monday of last week, a driver for a collect customer at one of our plants slipped and fell as he climbed back down his truck ladder, after operating the HIAB controls; he reached for the handrail with his left arm, but the action of falling and the sudden movement caused him to tear his bicep.  We believe the driver requires an operation to repair his torn tendon and is expected to be off work for 4 weeks; we wish him a speedy recovery.

In the second incident, a skip had been running out of line for some time, wearing the skip track and deforming it, while also eroding the flange on one of the skip wheels.  This caused the track gauge at the bottom to become wider and, at the time of the incident, one of the front wheels came off the track and ran underneath it as the skip was elevated.  As the skip reached the top, where it had to go over a bend, the front left wheel hit two gusset plates, forcing the skip off the track, whereupon it fell and impacted a cross beam; the resulting damage is shown in the photo.