The lorry loader - the HIAB-style crane behind the cab - is one of the most useful and most dangerous pieces of equipment in general haulage. It works in uncontrolled environments, on cambers and soft ground, within arm’s reach of the person operating it. HSE has issued a specific safety bulletin about one particular mechanism of death on these machines, and every operator running lorry loaders should know it: since 2019, HSE is aware of three fatal incidents in Great Britain where the operator of a lorry loader was crushed against the vehicle’s bodywork by the retracting leg of a powered tilting stabiliser.
On some lorry loaders, the stabiliser legs are powered “tilting” - also called swing-up or rotating - stabilisers. For stowage, the leg is rotated up to a vertical position, controlled either by levers at the crane base or by remote control. Depending on machine design, the stabiliser may rotate toward the front or the rear of the vehicle, and on some machines stabilisers on opposite sides of the same vehicle tilt in different directions.
The fatal pattern is consistent: while the stabiliser is being retracted, the operator is positioned where the part-rotated leg - approximately horizontal - sweeps through and crushes them against the bodywork. The person controlling the machine is standing inside the crush zone of their own equipment.
HSE’s bulletin is addressed to everyone in the chain: lorry loader operators, owners and hirers, service and repairers, installers, manufacturers, Appointed Persons, and sites receiving lorry loaders.
HSE’s actions for owners are concrete:
If you own or hire lorry loaders with powered tilting stabilisers, the first job is an audit: which machines have them, which way each leg rotates, what the manufacturer offers by way of safety improvements, and whether the warning decals are actually present and legible on every unit. A faded decal on a five-year-old crane is not a control measure.
Hirers deserve a mention too: a hired-in loader arrives with the same hazard profile as an owned one, and the hirer’s duty is to check the machine’s stabiliser type, decals and documentation before it works, not to assume the hire company already did. ## What goes into risk assessments and lift plans
Those involved in lorry loader operations should include the crushing hazard from tilting stabilisers in their risk assessments and build appropriate control measures into all lorry loader procedural documentation, including lift plans. The bulletin also instructs that the safety notice itself be shared with all personnel involved in lorry loader operations - operators, fleet owners and hirers, procurers, service and repair technicians, installers, Appointed Persons, and relevant personnel at receiving sites.
Practically, that means the lift plan for any loader job should state where the operator stands during stabiliser deployment and retraction, how the sweep zone is kept clear, and what the remote-control working position is. “Stand clear of the stabilisers” is not a control measure; a defined operator position that keeps the body out of the rotation path is.
The stabiliser bulletin sits on top of the general lifting-operations framework, and it is worth restating the spine of it for loader work:
A fatal crush during a delivery is not a crane hire company’s problem or the manufacturer’s alone. The machine is your equipment, working for your customer, on a lift your business planned, with your operator standing in the zone. The O-licence undertakings, the LOLER duties and the general health and safety duties all arrive at the same file. Three deaths since 2019 is HSE’s counted evidence that the risk is live - the bulletin is the warning, and the response to it is auditable.