The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) conducted an investigation into an accident which took place in a car park. A group of people from the Aylesbury Day Centre, which is Council run, had been on a trip. The group were boarding the bus by the tail-lift. William Delaney who uses a motorised scooter, was on the lift when his scooter came off the back and William fell to the ground, he later died from head injuries.
The investigation found that Mr Delaney’s scooter did not fit on the tail lift. This meant that plates fitted to the lift to prevent the scooter falling off the edge did not lock in to place. A risk assessment for carrying out such operations had not been carried out. Warning had been given by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in 2005, following a number of fatal accidents across the UK.
HSE’s investigating inspector Zameer Bhunnoo said: ‘A suitable risk assessment and safe procedure should have been drawn up. Southwark Council failed in its duty by exposing motorised scooter users to such obvious risks.’
