Falling forklift ends in GM fine
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EAGLE FREIGHT Terminal has been fined £50,000 after a forklift truck toppled and spilled its load onto a worker who was waiting for his trailer to be filled.
In a prosecution brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Ipswich Magistrate' Court was told how in January 2012 one of the forklifts loading at the firm's yard in Great Blakenham, Suffolk, hit a pothole and lurched sideways, shedding its pallets and boxes, one of which hit Neil Jennings, 56.
He suffered multiple fractures to the vertebrae of his upper and middle back and was unable to work for several weeks. The HSE found that the yard road surface was pitted with potholes and had been the subject of complaints by the firm's employees. There was little management of traffic
movements and no instructions were provided regarding segregation of workplace transport and pedestrians.
Eagle Freight Terminal, authorised for three vehicles and four trailers at the site, pleaded guilty to breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, and the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992. The firm was fined £50,000 for breaching the act.
It also admitted failure to comply with two improvement notices served by the HSE, requiring it to remedy the condition of the yard's surface and to introduce systems to allow vehicles and pedestrians to circulate safely at the site. It was also ordered to pay £4,501.23 costs.