Offences and penalties report - Mitchell Shaw

The summary

In July 2003 HSE investigated an incident in Cobridge, Stafforshire. A 3 year old boy was seriously hurt whilst playing in his own back yard, when a fork lift truck operating on adjacent land knocked a brick wall on to him. He suffered severe cuts to the face, head and body and post-accident trauma. The fork lift truck was found to be in very poor repair and was being operated by a 17 year old untrained driver. The investigation revealed serious underlying management failures.

The personal cost

Julie Shaw, Mitchell’s mother was in the family home when the accident happened. She recalls: “It was a fine day. My older son Ben was at school and Mitchell was playing happily in the backyard of our house with his rocking horse and other toys. My partner, Alun, heard a noise from the back. We did not think it was anything alarming but he went to check. He was horrified to see that the back yard wall had been completely pushed down by a fork lift truck, Mitchell had disappeared apart from a bit of his T-shirt sticking out from under the stone. When I saw what had happened I froze with panic. I thought Mitchell was dead. Alun shouted for help and some of the workmen and a passerby came. It took three men to lift a huge piece of stone from my little boy.

“Mitchell was just lying there. His face and head were covered with blood and dirt. The ambulance took him to the North Staffordshire hospital. He was treated and checked for brain damage and broken bones. Both his eyes were blackened and closed from the impact and he was also unable to walk for a few days. The scars to his face and head were deep – he actually lost some of his hair and he had to have specialist care to help the scars heal. All I could think was, is he going to die? Mitchell is a typical little boy, fun loving and boisterous. But for a long time afterward he had terrible nightmares about the accident.”

“When I look back this was an accident waiting to happen. A housing development company was using a narrow alleyway to get to a building site behind the backyard of our house. There was hardly room for any big vehicle to get down. My little boy happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I thank God he was not killed.”

The penalty

The director of the company involved was personally prosecuted for offences under section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and regulations 5 and 9 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. In the Crown Court he was fined a total of £14,000 and ordered to pay costs of £6,000.