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A vehicle recovery company and a recovery vehicles manufacturer have been fined after a worker died of crush injuries.

Southwark Crown Court heard how, on 31 May 2013, John Wallace, an employee of Ontime Automotive Ltd, was jet washing a twin deck recovery vehicle at the company's base in Hayes, Middlesex when the upper deck collapsed spontaneously, trapping him between the upper and lower deck. He died of his injuries at the scene.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the vehicle recovery equipment was poorly designed by a company called J&J Conversions Ltd. The upper deck, which was designed to fold down onto the lower deck, was only stable in its raised position if it was secured by two powered locking pins. It was possible to lower the locking pins if a control was operated and another device (that was intended to detect the position of the upper deck) was incorrectly operated by hand. Correct design would have used a device that could not be operated by hand to detect the position of the upper deck. Ontime failed to control this unsafe practice, as a limited number of employees within the company knew how to operate this device.

J&J Conversions failed to take appropriate measures to remedy the problem even after the upper deck had violently collapsed on a previous occasion when the vehicle was owned by a third party.

J&J Conversions Ltd of St Peter Street, Winchester pleaded guilty to breaching Section 6(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was fined £100,000 and ordered to pay full costs of £9,490.

Ontime Automotive Ltd of Waterside Drive, Langley was found guilty of breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and were fined £50,000 and ordered to pay costs of £50,000.

Source: H.S.E. Website