The company Serco has been fined £240,000 after a passenger in a lorry, which crashed into litter picking vans blocking a lane of a dual carriageway in Norfolk, was killed.
Tony Skerratt, 44, from Enfield, was in the passenger seat of a Wren Kitchens lorry when it hit the vans, which were obstructing the inside lane of the A11 near Attleborough, between Norwich and Thetford. The incident happened at around 12.45pm on February 26, 2019.
The vans had been moving along the road slowly, stopping from time to time to allow bags of rubbish to be collected. The litter picking was being carried out by Serco employees. Serco had been contracted by Breckland District Council to carry out the work.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found Serco failed in its health and safety management of litter picking activities on high-speed dual carriageways.
The business had not provided its employees with appropriate work instructions to ensure the litter picking activity was safe and failed to supervise and monitor the high-risk activity to ensure it was carried out safely.
In a statement, Skerratt’s family said the pain of their loss was as tender now as it was on the day of the incident.
According to HSE Inspector Saffron Turnell, “This was a tragic incident where the death of a member of the public could have easily been prevented had Serco implemented and monitored the robust management systems required to ensure such a high-risk activity could be carried out safely.
