3663 to pay £62,000 for paralysed driver
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The food distribution company was fined after a driver was paralysed in an accident while working for the firm
roger.brown@rbi.co.uk
FOOD DISTRIBUTION business BFS Group trading as 3663 has been ordered to pay £62,000 after a truck driver was paralysed from the neck down in an accident.
In a prosecution brought by Slough Borough Council, Reading Crown Court was told how 3663 temporary worker Neil Cooper, 28, was unloading metal roll cages from the rear of an 18-tonne lorry at the Marriott Hotel in Slough, Berkshire in October 2006 when one fell and crushed him.
Father-of-two Cooper, who had been based at the 3663 depot in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, was left paraplegic and confined to a wheelchair.
The court heard how during his four weeks as a temp at 3663, Cooper had not been given any formal training in relation to unloading operations using a tail lift.
BFS admitted breaching Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The company was given a £48,000 fine and ordered to pay £14,000 legal costs after accepting responsibility for the accident.
Both the prosecution and defence accepted that BFS had a proper and robust training system in place but that it had not been activated in this particular case.
In his summing up, Judge Parkes said the company would have received a fine of £72,000.
However, due to mitigating factors, such as the company’s full co-operation with the prosecuting authority, an early guilty plea, and no previous convictions, the fine was reduced.
The judge also said the monetary value of the fine imposed by the court was in no way intended to reflect the value of the injury suffered by Cooper.
Thomas Kilduff, senior environmental health officer for Slough Borough Council, says: “The case emphasises the need to ensure everyone at work, including temporary and agency staff, receive adequate training and supervision to perform their work safely.” Alex Fisher, MD at 3663, says the company “deeply regrets” the accident and has expressed its deepest regrets to Cooper and his family.
He adds: “The safety of 3663’s employees, and all those who may be affected by their activities, is paramount to 3663 and since the accident 3663 has taken steps to further enhance its health and safety procedures to put in place the necessary safeguards to avoid a recurrence.”