The UK Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has partially backed down on its demand that all truck loader cranes in the UK must be fitted with stabilisers interlocks, or an equivalent mechanical device, and reached a working compromise with the industry.

The HSE has secured the agreement of major manufacturers and the European Standing Committee (Working Group) on the Machinery Directive, that interlocks for new truck loader cranes ‘need to be developed as a matter of urgency to comply with the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 1992 (SMSR)’.

But the HSE is no longer saying, as it did in August 2001, that interlock stabilisers are immediately mandatory – apparently agreeing with the manufacturers that such a position is unworkable.

An interlocking system prevents a loader crane from being used unless its stabiliser legs are properly deployed.

The HSE issued a statement on 14 February 2003 stating that: ‘Manufacturers have agreed to pursue the development of suitable and reliable interlock systems (or an equivalent engineering solution) to be commercially available by 2006 that can be applied to all new models of lorry loader. When the development and availability of these devices is sufficiently advanced HSE will propose a revision to EN12999, the European Standard for cranes and loader cranes, via British Standards Institution (BSI) and European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) technical committees.’

The HSE said that, in the meantime, users of truck loaders should ensure that interlocks (or an equivalent engineering solution) are fitted where practicable. It warned that any modifications or additions to existing machines should only be carried out with specific approval of the manufacturer or an authorised representative.

It added: ‘Employers must also make certain operators of lorry loader cranes are properly trained in all aspects of the operation of a lorry loader. A policy dealing with the delivery of loads and agreed actions to be taken in the event that a lorry loader cannot deliver its load in safety, ie. if both sets of stabilisers cannot be deployed according to the manufacturers’ instructions, must also be in place.

Among the most vocal critics of the August 2001 announcement was the timber crane industry in Scotland. In response to this criticism, the HSE said that it had now ‘recognised that lorry loaders fitted to lorries used for raw timber transport in the forestry industry have particular operational problems and are excluded from the scope of the update’.

Wilson Paton, managing director of Outreach, a dealer for Loglift, Jonsered timber cranes as well as Palfinger truck loaders, responded: ‘There is an issue to be addressed but the technical complexities are far greater than were understood. The HSE would be better giving their attention to stabiliser beams being properly locked into position for transport.’

Many in the industry regard this as the greater safety issue. On 29 January a woman was killed when she was trapped between parked cars, hit by a moving truck’s stabiliser leg which had come free and deployed itself as the truck rounded a corner.