Broken neck leads to fine for Nottinghamshire company

Date:

22 December 2011

Release No:

HSE/EM/285

An East Midlands sign company has been fined after a worker fractured his neck falling from a vehicle-mounted lift.

The 44-year-old City and County Signs Ltd employee from Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, was using the lift to remove a sign from a commercial property in Hucknall High Street when the incident happened.

Southern Derbyshire Magistrates' Court heard the worker was standing in the basket but as it elevated one of two levelling rods that keep the basket horizontal at all times broke, causing the basket to tip backwards.

The man, who does not want to be named, fell around 1.5 metres and suffered minor injuries in addition to breaking his neck. He was in hospital for six days following the 5 November 2009 incident and when discharged was initially unable to drive or undertake routine tasks. He was off work for nine weeks.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found City and County Signs Ltd had failed to ensure the vehicle-mounted lift was thoroughly examined in the six months before the incident, as required by law.

City and County Signs Ltd, of Market Place, Bingham, Nottinghamshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 9(3)(a)(i) of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998. The company was today fined £10,000 and ordered to pay costs of £8,032.

After the hearing HSE inspector Lorna Sherlock said:

"There is a legal requirement for all employers who use lifting equipment to ensure they have it thoroughly examined by a competent person every six months. Had the company done this the cracks in the levelling rod would have been identified and repaired and this incident avoided. Instead, a worker suffered some nasty injuries which could have easily been much worse."

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk
2. Regulation 9(3)(a)(i) of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 states: "Every employer shall ensure that lifting equipment which is exposed to conditions causing deterioration which is liable to result in dangerous situations is thoroughly examined, in the case of lifting equipment for lifting persons or an accessory for lifting, at least every 6 months."
3. A photograph showing the scene of the incident is available from COI News & PR East Midlands.

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Issued on behalf of HSE by COI News & PR East Midlands