01 July 2009
Jocelyn Dorrell

Two firms have been fined a total of £200,000 over the death of a telescopic forklift truck driver who was crushed by the vehicle's arm.

The incident happened in September 2003 at Davyhulme Waste Water Treatment Works in Trafford, Greater Manchester, where Birse Water was principal contractor.

No one witnessed the accident but it is thought the victim, who worked for subcontractor MB Plastics, which makes water pipes, knocked the forklift's control joystick as he leant out of the truck's window, inadvertently bringing the arm down onto him.

Manchester Crown Court heard that the vehicle's offside window usually acted as a guard, but it had been damaged five weeks earlier and was completely missing on the day of the accident.

Warrington-based MB Plastics was charged under Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act for failing to ensure employees' safety. Birse Water of Cheadle Hulme was charged under Section 3(1) of the Act for failing to ensure the safety of those outside its employment, in that it didn't make sure MB Plastics had suitable risk assessments for telescopic forklift operations and didn't adequately monitor the firm.

HSE inspector Warren Pennington said MB Plastics didn't have a system for regular, formal plant inspections.

"As a result, the company failed to maintain the cab window which could have saved this man's life," he said.

"Birse ... had a comprehensive management system but it was not implemented and, as a result, something as simple as a missing window was not spotted."

MB Plastics pleaded guilty and on 30 June was fined £150,000 plus £24,323 costs. Birse Water, which now trades as Birse Integrated Solutions, also admitted culpability and was handed a £50,000 fine with £41,073 costs.

Sentencing the two, Judge Peter Lakin said, "The harsh reality of this case is that, in relation to this contract, MB completely failed to have any proper regard to their health and safety obligations.

"This directly led to the development of an unsafe and sloppy system of work in relation to the use of telehandlers. As a result, MB's workforce was exposed to completely unnecessary and avoidable risk.

"Birse, as principal contractors on site, failed to implement their own systems and accordingly failed to properly monitor what MB were doing. This lack of monitoring allowed MB's disregard for health and safety to continue over a number of weeks. In short, Birse failed in their supervisory role."

Categories:
Enforcement (prosecutions), Prosecutions, Enforcement (prosecutions), Work equipment, Workplace transport



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