In September 2015, two employees of the grain milling company were emptying a warehouse which contained old electrical equipment.
One forklift truck was in operation to remove the redundant equipment by loading it onto pallets and taking it across the yard to be sorted into skips.
A second was working separately to stack pallets of ingredients onto a trailer. On the day of the incident, Mark Johnson attempted to cross the yard to reach the pallets and skips but was struck by the second forklift truck, injuring his right leg which later required amputation below the knee.
The HSE’s investigation found that no measures had been taken to separate pedestrians from circulating vehicles and that the company could have installed temporary control measures to reduce the risk of collisions with moving vehicles.
Morning Foods Limited of North Western Mills, Gresty Road, Crewe, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 17 (1) of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 and was fined £30,000 with costs of £35,000.
HSE Inspector Jennifer French said: “Those in control of work have a responsibility to devise safe working methods and to provide the necessary information, instruction and training to their workers, in the safe system of working.
“If a suitable system of work had been in place prior to the incident, the life changing injuries sustained by the employee could have been prevented.”
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