ROPS help old vehicles avoid construction accident claims

Vehicles that have been used on a construction site for many years may be older than the health and safety rules that aim to prevent construction accidents, but this does not mean that they are exempt from those rules. Site managers are still required to produce risk assessments that cover the possibility of personal injury to anyone on their building site, and this may mean that retrofitting an old vehicle is necessary.

These safety additions include roll-over protective structures, or ROPS. ROPS, when they are being fitted, must comply with regulations 26 and 27 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER). Read more about PUWER here.

The UK's Health and Safety Executive publishes a factsheet that outlines how a user, owner or manufacturer of construction vehicles can fit ROPS, restraints or attachment points for these vehicles to avoid personal injury. This suggests that the vehicles which need ROPS installed include:

• compact dumpers;
• agricultural tractors; and
• variable reach rough terrain trucks (telehandlers).

ROPS systems are not required to have a CE marking, but those that do not must be examined by an approved body before being installed.

Some vehicles will satisfy PUWER rules simply by installing operator restraints. This brief note, however, should not replace the full guidelines offered at the HSE site.

Making a compensation claim following a construction accident
If you have suffered a personal injury in an accident on a building site that was not your fault, there is a strong likelihood of you being able to claim for compensation. And in that case, we at YouClaim are here to help.

Our advisors can discuss the details of your case with sensitivity and without demanding any commitment from you, so that you can decide whether or not to proceed with a claim yourself. If you do choose to do so, we can also provide you with an expert personal injury lawyer to handle the legal complexity of your case - and without any costs to you, win or lose.

We are able to offer a system under which our no win, no fee agreement charges our fee, when we win, to your opponent, and protects you from any costs in a compensation claim whatever the result. We then guarantee not to take any cuts from your damages under our 100 percent compensation promise.

Our construction accident specialists are available through this website - use our echat window to speak directly through your screen, or leave us your details on our claim form, and we'll call you - or simply call us, on 0800 10 757 95, and take us up on our offer of help.