A cardboard box manufacturer has been fined £20,000 plus costs of £12,190 at Dartford Magistrates’ Court in connection with an industrial accident in which an employee, who was trying to pull a pallet of cardboard boxes across his trailer from the driver’s side to the curb side, fell 1.5 metres to the ground. He fell backwards when the pallet strapping he was pulling failed. The injured man was delivering boxes in Eastbourne during August 2010, W.E. Roberts (Corrugated) Ltd admitted breaching S.2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
An HSE official commented: “The company failed to adequately consider the risks that delivery drivers face when they are not on site. This led to this severe and entirely preventable incident which has had such a long-lasting and devastating effect on this worker. The outcome of this case reinforces the responsibility that employers have to all of their workers, wherever they are, not just those on site under constant supervision.”
