Employee injured after industrial accident

Alexander Dennis Ltd, of Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, has pleaded guilty to breaching S.2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and been fined £50,000 at Falkirk Sheriff Court in connection with an industrial accident on 16th September 2009 which resulted in a facial injury to an employee who was rendered unfit for work for more than 2 months.

The employee was involved in the routine transporting of a 120kg steel floor platform with a colleague operating a forklift truck, prior to which the operator placed extensions on to the forks but neglected to properly secure either the forks or the load. When they arrived at the chassis shop destination, the platform was lowered and the accident victim placed a sling underneath and around the load to place it onto the chassis and attached it to one of the extension forks.

With the help of 2 other employees, he began manually lining up the platform and chassis while the fork lift operator adjusted the angle the forks were tilted at and lowered them slightly, but as he did so the sling came loose, causing one end of the platform to swing up and strike him on the chin.

It was established during investigation that the employees relied solely on the dead weight of the load for its security during its transportation. The task had not been adequately risk assessed despite it being routine, and consequently no safe system of work was adopted. No formal training on lifting operations had been given.

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