Taxi Driver Online

Not taxi related but will it have concequences?


A council has been ordered to pay a total of £104,000 after a 90-year-old woman died when she crashed to the ground off a council bus in a wheelchair with faulty brakes.

Staffordshire County Council, which owned the chair and the bus Mary Smith was on, was ordered to pay an £83,000 fine and £21,000 costs at Stafford Crown Court after earlier pleading guilty to breaching health and safety laws.

The charges relate to the death of 90-year-old Mrs Smith in June 2007, whilst she was in the care of the county council.

The widow, who was a regular user of the Wombourne Day Centre, died three days after falling from the back of the bus outside her home in Clee View Road, Wombourne.

The pensioner was being transported to her home from the centre, which she had visited five days per week for four years. She toppled two feet from the back of the council operated Ring and Ride bus, breaking several ribs, puncturing her lung and breaking her collarbone.

The driver had been attempting to take her down a tail lift and into her house but the wheelchair was later found to have failing brakes.


Judge Mark Eades said: "It is particularly tragic that someone as vulnerable as Mrs Smith, who was in the twilight of her life, died in such tragic circumstances.


"The fine that I have ordered is for breaking the health and safety rules, I am in no way trying to place a value on the life of Mrs Smith.


"The reason for this accident and ultimately her death is straightforward, the chair had defective brakes and there was no sufficient maintenance or checking programme in place.


"The authority has since put in a effective remedial response, they have warned similar organ-isations, co-operated with the Health and Safety Executive and have shown that they are a responsible public body that has taken this issue very seriously."


Outside court a spokeswoman for Staffordshire County Council said: "We remain deeply saddened by the tragic nature of Mary Smith's death after a fall whilst in our care.


"As a local authority we accept that we had reasonable guidelines in place, but more was needed to avoid further incidents."

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
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So the health and safety issue here was the fact the council owned and provided a wheelchair that was faulty.

Regards

JD

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Copyright notice © The contents of this post are copyright of JD and are not to be reproduced outside of TDO without written permission.

The judge seems very clear. Straightforward breach of H&S Regs.

I don't suppose any of us provide wheelchairs, but the same would apply to anyone's ramps, clamps etc if they failed. I wonder how often these are checked and whether those doing the checking are qualified to do so?

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A fines no use....as for the cash from the fine it'll be paid for out of the Public pot only to go straight back into the Public pot in some other area. The only way to make it hurt is to target the Council employee or employees who were responsible for not doing their job right, fire them and land them with a chunky fine or prison sentence for their gross Incompetence or neglect...thats what would happen in the Private sector..