Manchester metal firm sentenced over worker's death

Date:

6 February 2013

A metal manufacturer in Manchester has been sentenced after an employee was killed when a machine weighing half-a-tonne fell from a forklift truck.

The overturned machine which caused Mr Dempsey's death

Bruce Dempsey, 25, from Eccles, was walking alongside the forklift as it moved the machine at Applied Fusion Ltd in Patricroft when it fell and struck him on the head. He died at the scene.

The company was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after an investigation into the incident, on 2 December 2009, found it had not planned the work in advance so that the machine could be moved safely.

Manchester Crown Court heard today (6 February) that Applied Fusion Ltd had been moving four of its machines into a bigger workshop at the factory. It was during the move of the fourth machine that it became unstable and fell, resulting in Mr Dempsey's death.

The court was told the company had taken over the Fielding Street factory six weeks before the incident, but a health and safety audit had not been carried out at the company's new premises.

The firm also failed to inform its own trained engineer responsible for overseeing lifting operations that it was planning to move the machines at the plant.

The forklift operator who lifted the machine had attended a one-day driver training course in October 2006, but was not trained and competent to lift any complicated loads that were not on pallets.

Applied Fusion Ltd, which went into administration in March 2011, was found guilty of breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 by failing to ensure the safety of its employees. The company received a nominal fine of £1.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Mike Lisle said:

Bruce Dempsey

"Bruce Dempsey sadly lost his life because of the failings of his employer. It was important to bring this case to court to raise awareness of this issue so that similar tragic incidents can be prevented from happening again.

"Workers at the factory were told to move heavy, bulky machinery using a forklift truck, and the company should have made sure the work was properly planned in advance.

"If the machine had been strapped to the forks, and workers told to stay a safe distance away, then Mr Dempsey's death could have been avoided."

Bruce Dempsey was one of 24 people to be killed while working in the manufacturing industry in Great Britain in 2009/10. Nearly 4,000 workers also suffered a major injury.

Information on improving safety is available at www.hse.gov.uk/manufacturing.

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."

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