Firm fined over fork lift fallA Berwick malt company must pay over £15,000 after a man was injured falling from a fork lift truck.
It was also ordered to pay a £15 victim surcharge.
In October 2007, worker John Weatherburn was trying to repair a roller shutter door when he fell from the forks of a fork lift truck.
HSE principal inspector Richard Bulmer said: 'Falls from height are the most common cause of workplace fatalities and many other serious major injuries.
'Experience shows that using a simple pallet on a standard fork lift truck as a means of access when carrying out maintenance or repair work is fraught with danger. Many workers have been either killed or seriously injured in this way in the past.
'Health and safety law requires a reasonable approach to risk reduction, involving for example, such alternatives as the safe use of ladders, mobile scaffolds or cherry pickers (mobile elevated work platforms).'
Copyright © Press Association 2009
Tim Beasley, Personal Injury Partner with Levenes Birmingham office writes:
This story illustrates very well the sort of cases we see all the time. It beggars belief sometimes how some employers fail to protect the health and safety of their employees. The job which the worker was doing is one that could have been done perfectly safely with the right equipment and a little planning.
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