DEAR SIRS,
here,s a brief discription of a accident i had in work, i was on the night shift at a major food supplier shunting the trailors mostly grays and adams 45ft all with fridge units ,the first trailor of the night was already on the bay ,the tractor unit had dropped it there on the previous shift afternoons.
When the trailor was full the loaders let me know and i pulled the tractor unit infront of the trailor (scania) with a window on the rear for good visability i connected the fifth wheel up correctly ,heard the click , put the handbrake on ,got out of the cab checked it visably ,on the king pin correctly then got up on the catwalk connected the abs line then the red air line, 2 seconds later the trailor jolted forwards pushing me onto the cable housing fracturing my ribs then i fell backwards cutting my leg.
There wasn,t much room between the fridge unit and the trailor unit,the yard was on a slight slope(downhill) to make it easier to load the food etc.
I was in severe pain when i got off the floor i found the trailor brake hadn,t been applied,one of the loaders
heard the loud noise and came to the door and asked me if i was ok.
I replied no i thought i was going to kill myself,they havn,t put the trailor brake on(afternoon shift).
I immediatly told the supervisor what had happened ,i was the only hgv driver on duty this gave him a serious problem.I had no first aid ,i wasn,t taken to hospital and the accident wasn,t recorded in the accident book.I stupidly carried on and finnished the shift while the supervisor went for a ■■■ to decide what to do he never came back.
After talking to a number of hgv drivers and mechanics ,i should have checked that the trailor brake was applied this was my mistake ,when i connected the red air line this released the back brakes on the trailor which was now full on a slight slope up tight against a wall so impossible for the trailor to go backwards,the concluesion was the brakes came off the weight was transfered onto the tractor unit causing it to pince under the pressure thus pushing me onto the cable housing causing the accident .
The previous shunter driver on afternoons has admitted to me he failed to apply the parking brake.To be fair to him he has never failed to apply the parking brake in all the time i have been shunting Nearly a year ,he ex military and was meticulus.
The company said that i had lied about the accident,and that came from the transport supervisor(bearing in mind he has no hgv licence and has never dropped a trailor in his life)then i was asked repeatly if i had slipped tripped or fell somewhere else,no what i said was the truth.i even offered them to lie detector test me 
,they turned this down of course.Then one of the top men transport supervior number 2 asked me if i had made up the entire accident so i could spend time with my new born baby!!!what .
The yard was covered by CCTV cameras ,simple look at the footage then you will see what i said was true.
I WAS TOLD YOU CAN,T SEE THE CCTV FOOTAGE BECAUSE OF THE DATA PROTECTION ACT,but the cameras cover the inside of the fridge pointing at the back roller shutter door,the main yard covering all the lorry ,and another camera pointing down the offside of the lorry showing me falling backwards.and the whole accident.
The company never trained me ,or give me any written instructions or risk assessments are they in the wrong.
THIS IS A VERY BIG COMPANY THAT TURNS OVER MILLIONS OF POUNDS A YEAR.
HOW DO THEY GET AWAY WITH IT,EVEN GETTING OUT OF ATTENDING A EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNAL,IT SEEMS THEY ARE ABOVE THE LAW
I have all licences ,i had been doing the job for nearly a year.the problem was the afternoon shift driver had failed to put the park brake on,aswell the trailor involved was very tight on space,this wouldn,t have happened with any other trailor as the gaps are much much bigger,every body makes mistakes ,i admitted mine and there seems to be an agenda of not recording accidents within that particular company,which in the long term may prove detrimental…to all.
There is a safety device called a parnell or purnell safety brake which could have stopped the accident occuring most major supermakets fit them ,but they cost money… :lol
SORRY I HAVEN,T POSTED THIS ACCIDENT EARLIER AFTER READING OF MUCH WORSE ACCIDENTS THAN MINE