Recycling company fined after man dies from being struck

Date:

28 January 2011

Release No:

COISE/2101

A recycling company has been fined £200,000 after a machine overturned and the loading bucket hit a man at a site in Minster, Kent.

Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Ling Metals Ltd of Parham Road, Canterbury, Kent for breaching health and safety law.

Canterbury Crown Court heard on the 19 March 2007, Darren Baker, 35, of Thanington, was helping to lay a new horse riding surface of crumbled rubber at Brambles Stables, Watchester Lane, Minster, Ramsgate.

The telehandler and bucket which struck Mr Baker

A colleague was driving a telescopic materials handler - a forklift truck with an extendable arm or boom - commonly referred to as a telehandler. The vehicle was fitted with a loading bucket containing the rubber and it had extended its boom more than six metres. It was resting on its wheels and the hydraulic stabilisers fitted at the front of the machine were not being used.

Mr Baker walked across the path of the boom just as the telehandler reached its balance point and tipped forward. The bucket hit him on the head and forced him to the ground. The operator managed to bring the vehicle upright by lowering the front stabilisers. Mr Baker died in hospital two days later from multiple injuries.

The telehandler was fitted with a 'Safe Load Indicator' device. These devices help operators to stay within safe limits by using a series of lights and an alarm. The Safe Load Indicator should be calibrated so that when the alarm goes off there is still sufficient capacity to prevent an overturn. The HSE investigation found that the Safe Load Indicator was not correctly calibrated and was unusable at the time.

In addition, the machine's previous safety certificate (called a Certificate of Thorough Examination) had expired prior to the incident. Although an engineer had visited on two separate occasions to inspect and repair the telehandler they were unable to complete this due to the poor condition of the machine.

The operator had not been told how much the bucket weighed when it was empty or full, or how heavy a load of crumbled rubber was. Lastly, the operator lacked understanding of the machine instructions, which showed how much it could lift and to what maximum distance the boom could be extended.

HSE Inspector John Underwood said:

"I would like to remind owners and operators of machines fitted with older style Safe Load Indicators that these need checking and recalibrating on a regular basis as some older machines do not tell the operator when they have decalibrated.

"It is vital that the owner and operator have a robust procedure to ensure workers knows how to correctly use the machine; how to recognise when it may be going out of calibration and what to do about it. Each machine should be checked by plant fitters and maintained in line with the manufacturer's recommendations.

"This was a wholly avoidable incident which led to unnecessary loss of life. I hope this fine will be an example to those involved in the use of telehandlers that machine maintenance is critical to enable safe operation."

Ling Metals Ltd pleaded guilty at a previous hearing on 30 November at Canterbury Magistrates' Court. Today, the company was sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court, to breaching section 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and regulations 7(c) and 10(3) of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Appliances Regulations 1998. It was fined £200,000 and ordered to pay £11,384.11 in costs.

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. Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety At Work etc Act 1974 states: "It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees."
3. Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety At Work etc Act 1974 states: "It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety."
4. Regulation 7(c) of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 requires that "Every employer shall ensure that accessories for lifting are also marked in such a way that it is possible to identify the characteristics necessary for their safe use".
5. Regulation 10(3) of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 requires that "Every employer who has been notified - by a person making a thorough examination of any defect in the lifting equipment which in his opinion is or could become a danger to persons - shall ensure that the lifting equipment is not used before the defect is rectified."
6. BS EN 15000:2008 is a European Standard that now includes a specification for safety devices in new Telescopic Material Handlers that will lock out the machine controls once the load being carried reaches the outer limit of the operating envelope. Previous designs relied on the operator stopping at the limit. This coupled with safety devices that tell the operator when the device has gone out of calibration provides an inherently safer design. (BS EN 15000: 2008 'Safety of industrial trucks. Self propelled variable reach trucks. Specification, performance and test requirements for longitudinal load moment indicators and longitudinal load moment limiters')
7. Incidents involving mobile plant continue to cause a large proportion of fatal and major injuries in the construction and associated industries. In the year 2007-2008, 72 construction workers died in incidents of which 16 involved mobile plant of which seven involved lifting plant.

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