Fork lift fall leads to prosecution for Derbyshire company

Date:

5 January 2012

Release No:

HSE/EM 287

A Derbyshire manufacturing firm has been fined after a forklift truck driver fell from a ramp whilst unloading a lorry.

Andrew Baxter, 50, from Eckington was unloading a 20ft container at Vesuvius UK Limited's Sheepbridge Works in Chesterfield on 15 February 2010.

Mr Baxter was using a forklift truck and mobile ramp when the ramp became separated from the lorry bed, dropping the truck and driver to the ground. Mr Baxter suffered a fractured back and crushed disk. He spent eight days in hospital, was off work for nine months and can still only work part time.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) told Chesterfield magistrates there was no evidence of a risk assessment having been carried out for any of the loading/unloading activities taking place on site, where refractory products are made. There was knowledge amongst the forklift truck drivers that the ramp could move away from the lorry beds and they had adopted an informal system of using the forks of the truck to push it back into position.

After the hearing HSE inspector Fiona Coffey said:

"Vesuvius UK Ltd failed to proactively assess the risks of loading and unloading using the mobile ramps, a failure that resulted in Mr Baxter sustaining severe injuries.

"The company had a legal duty to ensure work equipment was safe to use and that employees were instructed in safe systems of work and supervised but it had also failed to do so."

Vesuvius UK Limited, of 1 Midland Way, Central Park, Barlborough, Derbyshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and Regulation 3(1)(a) of the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and was fined £24,000 and ordered to pay full costs of £4,815.

Last year more than 4,000 employees suffered major injuries after falling from height at work.

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. Regulation 3(1)(a) of the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999 states: Every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the health and safety of his employees to which they are exposed whilst they are at work
4. Visit www.hse.gov.uk/falls for more guidance on working at height.

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