Garage Director fined more than £16,000 after customer was crushed by their own car?

A garage and one of its directors have been ordered to pay out more than £16,000 after a customer was crushed by their own vehicle there.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said Mahmut Emanet, of Tottenham, was ‘lucky to be alive’ after suffering permanent and life-changing injuries at Silver Street Service Garage in north London.

The 62-year-old had taken his company car to be serviced at the garage in College Close, Edmonton, on August 15, 2022 and had been asked to help with the work.

But as company director Seyit Dilek walked away and left him standing under the vehicle while it was on a lift, it fell on to Emanet, who spent six days in a critical care unit.

An HSE investigation found that the garage and MOT testing station had failed to make sure that members of the public weren’t exposed to health and safety risks.

The company also failed to ensure that the equipment had been thoroughly examined for any defects.

The accident at Silver Street Service Garage in London.

Dilek was in charge of the garage at the time and was directly responsible for the way work was carried out and access managed on site, but he failed to ensure that the public weren’t exposed to health and safety risks, said the national regulator for workplace health and safety.

At a hearing before Westminster magistrates last Thursday (Dec 7), Silver Street Service Garage Ltd admitted breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and contravening Regulation 9(3)(a)(ii) of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998.

It was fined £12,000 and ordered to pay £2,406 costs.

Dilek, 51, of Waltham Abbey, London, pleaded guilty at the same hearing to a breach of Section 3(1) by virtue of Section 37(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

He was fined £500 and ordered to pay £1,500 costs. The total payable comes to £16,406.

Afterwards, HSE inspector Michelle Morphy said: ‘Mr Emanet is lucky to be alive.

The accident at Silver Street Service Garage in London.

This incident could have been avoided if he had simply been asked to stay in the waiting area provided for members of the public.

‘Instead, not only was he left to move freely around the two-post vehicle lift on which his vehicle was raised, he was asked by a director of the business to assist with the work being carried out, in the minutes before it fell.’

The HSE said it had previously warned workers of the dangers of poorly supported vehicles.

A total of 24 workers in the motor vehicle repair industry have been killed in work-related accidents in the past five years.

The fatal injury rate in the motor vehicle repair industry is around five times the average rate across all industries, said the HSE.

It added that recent research suggests that more than half of all fatal injuries in the sector were caused by work under a poorly supported vehicle.

Andre Cross

AXGE