Mrs. Olive Stevens on 6th November 2014, on Skeet Hill Lane in Orpington met with Veolia's BCR the paper/food waste Round - on the next day she died in the Hospital.
I as a former worker of Veolia 2007-2015 and who used to be the Loader of BCR Round between 2007-2013, I'd like to give the Public some information which will sheds new light on this bizarre incident.
The BCR Round collects the paper and the food waste - the crew consists of three people - the Driver and two Loaders. The crew were: a regular/Contracted driver, a regular/Contracted top Loader and the agency Loader.
All information, which we can find on the Internet, regarding the incident, says that "A man climbed out of the lorry and offered to assist Mrs Stevens reversing her Silver Nissan Micra back along the lane."
In short, the agency Loader left the dustcart, then he got into Mrs. Stevens' car and during reversing hit her - he hasn't got a driving license.
I've been still wondering why the Driver of BCR round, who as the Leader of the crew - he is responsible for organising and controlling the activities of the Loaders - could allow one of them to manoeuvre Mrs. Olive Stevens' car ??
Why the Driver, in particular, as a former supervisor and manager of Veolia, in this case didn't apply the Reversing Policy - the part of regarding the duty of the Reversing Assistant.
The primary role of the Reversing Assistant when operating on the highway /road/ street is to ensure that members of the public or other persons do not enter the danger zone behind the vehicle whilst it is moving. It's means that in this case, The Assistant had to have asked Mrs. Stevens to move out of the danger zone (space behind a car) to the safe zone, it's means that she wouldn't be standing behind her car, so she could not be hit by her car.
For me, as the member of BCR crew, who used to work with this Driver and with a regular Loader from the beginning this the bizarre incident was something like the mystery.
I'd like to write a few more information ... each Thursday (except the following Bank Holiday) the BCR round has to collect the paper and the food waste in Chelsfield area, in Orpington. The dustcart DK11BWG is too big to safely operate in this area, some or parts of country lanes are too narrow for this lorry and often the both side mirrors must be pull in - any reversing without operates with the mirrors is too dangerous for the driver and the Reversing Assistant it's means for the Loader.
Always the driver of the car in front of the lorry was persuaded to reverse till finding a suitable place to park-up his car to allowed to safely pass him by the lorry.
It's happened with Mrs. Olive Stevens but she had difficulty doing this. In the situation like this, always, I or another Loader or together climbed out of the cab to help the driver to reversing as the Reversing Assistants.
Sometimes it took a several minutes until we found a right place to park the car and then our dustcart could safely move forward. Why something like this hasn't been dealt with Mrs. Olive Stevens' car... I don't know.
About problems with the size of a dustcart DK11BWG Veolia knows but why it hasn't been sorted out... only the Company knows.
Because of "the clock out", as the Hours of Work, on each Thursday we finished our a daily work, around 9.40a ... I used to be at home around 10.00am. Any problems which could lead us to slow down we tried to sort out as fast as it was possible.
The motive of a fly-tipped rubbish which I can find in each of the press articles is not convincing to me - if this had blocked the lorry from moving on, the crew was really only interested in reversing the lorry, despite the dangers of this manoeuvre and moving on to the next road, to carry on their collections. But in this case the crew wanted to move forward, so they wanted Mrs. Olive Stevens' car out of their way. In this case, due to the sheer lack of due and attention of the Health and Safety standards and regulations, has resulted in a "freak accident"... .
The problem is wider... for example some workers in Veolia, like the Driver of this Round, after the breach of Health and Safety regulations, without any consequences like the Disciplinary Investigation, can carry on his duties.
This Driver with the contracted Loader, previously, made a false accusations with false statements - not only once - against their the regular/contracted Loader ... the acts of collusion among Veolia's employees and management it's something normal for this company.
Mrs. Olive Stevens has passed away ... and nothing can bring her back to life.
Yet a few months ago, I thought that she was the victim of the wrongdoing within Veolia. But I was wrong ... Mrs. Olive Stevens is the victim of ... .
The Public, even, isn't able to imagine what it is about !
Only two questions to the Public - how is possible, that despite the Health & Safety Executive and other regulations, Veolia's dustcarts with as dimensions as the dustcart DK11BWG, operates on much-too-narrow roads ? Why has Bromley Council given "a green light" for this ?
The answer everyone will find in my next the open letters.
