An Aberdeenshire haulage firm has been fined after a driver was severely injured when he was knocked to the ground and run over by a tractor unit of a Heavy Goods Vehicle.
Ian Mackie, 43, from Turriff, was one of a team of drivers who worked for R & J Milne Limited operating out of its haulage yard in Norwood, Ardmiddle, Turriff.
As part of their duties, drivers were regularly required to clean company vehicles in a "wash bay" area. On 12 November 2010, Mr Mackie was one of five drivers who had cleaned a tractor unit. He was talking to a colleague near the front of the vehicle, when the driver of that tractor unit climbed into his cab, started the vehicle and began to pull out of the wash bay.
As the vehicle turned left out of the wash bay, it struck Mr Mackie, who fell into his colleague. Both men were knocked to the ground and one of the front wheels of the tractor unit drove over Mr Mackie's right foot and leg.
Mr Mackie was in hospital for 13 weeks and had to have a metal plate inserted into his pelvis and a skin graft on his leg. He returned to work in April 2011 but has permanent scars along the length of his leg and to his hip and still suffers bad circulation, numbness and pain.
On 13 September, Banff Sheriff Court heard that an investigation into the incident by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that there was no organised system to control vehicle movements within the yard around the wash bay area to segregate pedestrians from moving vehicles.
R & J Milne Limited, of Carden Place, Aberdeen, was fined £20,000 after pleading guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.