Vehicle recovery firm fined £28,000 after worker crushed by reversing truck in Highworth

Cotswold Vehicle Recovery (Swindon) Limited was fined £28,000 at Bristol Magistrates' Court on 29 October 2026 after a worker was crushed under a reversing recovery truck at its Highworth yard, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said.

The company pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and was ordered to pay £2,000 in costs, according to the regulator.

HSE said its investigation found the company had failed to put in place a suitable traffic management system to let vehicles and pedestrians circulate safely, and had not implemented proper precautions to assist reversing drivers.

HSE Inspector Laura Artosi said: "Almost 25 per cent of fatal workplace transport accidents in Great Britain occur while a vehicle is reversing – a stark reminder to employers to properly assess and manage this fundamental risk."

The incident

On 13 June 2025, Simon Pedder was carrying out yard duties at the company's site at Blackworth Industrial Estate, Highworth, when he was hit and crushed under a company-owned recovery truck, HSE said.

He suffered fractures to both legs and an arm, a punctured lung and a fractured rib. He was airlifted to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, where he spent five weeks and underwent several operations, including skin grafts, according to the regulator.

More than 10 months on, HSE said Mr Pedder uses crutches, a Zimmer frame and a wheelchair, needs regular care visits and has been told he will most likely need walking aids for the rest of his life.

Mr Pedder said: "I can't cut the grass, I can't fold the washing, I can't go for a walk, and I am not allowed to drive. This accident took away my freedom."

HSE said the prosecution was brought by HSE enforcement lawyer Karen Park and paralegal officer Michael Millman.

The regulator's lesson

HSE's stated lesson from the case is that employers should use a one-way system for vehicle circulation to eliminate the need for reversing wherever possible. Where that is not possible, it said sites should be organised with protective barriers, clear markings and pedestrian crossing points, and vehicles should be fitted with rear-view cameras and warning alarms.

The regulator's reversing guidance sets out the same hierarchy. It advises removing the need for reversing altogether by setting up one-way systems, and considering a trained signaller, or banksman, to keep the reversing area free of pedestrians and guide drivers.

On vehicle aids, the guidance says refractive lenses fitted to rear windows or closed-circuit television systems can help drivers see behind the vehicle. HSE's safe manoeuvring guidance adds that companies which have fitted CCTV have found it can reduce the number of reversing accidents.

HSE is cautious about relying on alarms alone. Its reversing guidance says audible alarms should be loud and distinct enough that they do not become part of the background noise, and its safe manoeuvring page warns that alarms may be drowned out by other noise or be so common on a busy site that pedestrians do not take notice of them.

Fuller advice is in HSE's guide to workplace transport safety, HSG136, now in its third edition published in September 2014, which the regulator says tells employers what they need to do to comply with the law and reduce risk.

The wider picture

HSE's provisional RIDDOR statistics record 126 workers killed in work-related accidents in Great Britain in 2025/26. Being struck by a moving vehicle accounted for 24 of those deaths, the second-highest category after falls from a height, according to the regulator's fatal injury table.

Cause of worker death, 2025/26 (provisional)	Deaths
Falls from a height	31
Struck by moving vehicle	24

HSE says the 2025/26 figures are provisional and will be finalised in July 2027.

Companies House records Cotswold Vehicle Recovery (Swindon) Limited as company number 12315060, an active private limited company incorporated on 14 November 2019, with a registered office at 30 St. Giles, Oxford. Its registered nature of business is SIC code 52219, other service activities incidental to land transportation.

HSE said it does not pass sentences, set guidelines or collect any fines imposed, and that courts must follow the relevant sentencing guidelines unless satisfied it would be contrary to the interests of justice. The Sentencing Council's definitive guideline for health and safety offences came into force on 1 February 2016.