The importance of health and safety training qualifications has been highlighted by one industry expert after an incident in which a man was crushed by a forklift truckload.
Damon Alex McLaughlin had been operating telehandling machinery without stabilisers, causing the equipment to drop its three-tonne consignment on the banksman, resulting in him sustaining a broken back and ankle.
Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector Bruce Monaghan noted that this accident was "entirely foreseeable" and urged employers to check qualifications thoroughly after it emerged credentials Mr McLaughlin supplied were partly fraudulent.
"Companies should be alert to the possibility that documentation presented as evidence of training, experience and competence can be invalid if obtained on the basis of false or misleading information," he added.
The HSE recently called on organisations to be diligent in providing a secure working environment for those operating at height after a member of staff for Lincoln-based A Nicoll & Son fell from a roof and injured his back and ribs.
