A Leicestershire aluminium fabricator has been sentenced after a worker was crushed under a lifting truck which tipped over while lifting extruder dies from storage racks. On sentencing the judge said that there was a prolonged and very substantial failure on the part of the company in relation to its monitoring, supervision and enforcement of safe working procedures in the die shop.
HSE added that there was “a failure on behalf of management to record and learn from previous near-miss incidents”.
Leicester Crown Court heard how Stefan Durina, 33, of Beeston, Nottinghamshire, suffered chest and abdominal crush injuries following the incident at Boal UK Ltd in Shepshed, near Loughborough, on 23 June 2013. He died from his injuries in hospital the next day,
Mr Durina was trapped underneath an overturned hi bay order picker truck he was using to collect or return aluminium extruder dies, types of metal mould, to the racked storage system.
An investigation by HSE concluded that the incident was entirely preventable and stemmed from three material breaches of health and safety law. These were inadequate risk assessment for collecting and replacing dies in storage racks, an inadequate safe system of work for the use of a Narrow Aisle High Level Reach Truck and the company’s organisation of lifting operations in the die storage area.
Boal UK Ltd of Ashby Road East, Shepshed, Loughborough, was fined £140,000 and ordered to pay £32,251.31 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
After the hearing, HSE inspector Berian Price said: “Mr Durina’s death was entirely preventable and his life was needlessly lost.
“This incident happened because of management’s failure to ensure a safe system of work was in place that was clearly understood and adhered to by employees and supervised by departmental management. This stemmed in part from the lack of appropriate controls to prevent the lifting truck coming into contact with overhead beams, and from poor control of working practices.
“In addition, there was a failure on behalf of management to record and learn from previous near-miss incidents.
“Lifting operations, which often present severe risks to workers, must be properly planned, controlled and adequately supervised. Serious and fatal incidents have occurred due to workers being crushed by lifting equipment
“It is therefore important to properly enforce, plan and organise lifting operations so they are carried out in safe manner. Each of these elements requires a person or people with sufficient competence to be notified at each step.
“For complex and high-risk operations, the planning and organisation should be extensive and meticulous. Dutyholders should also consider ‘foreseeable misuse’, such as overloading.”
Approaches to managing the risks associated Musculoskeletal disorders
In this episode of the Safety & Health Podcast, we hear from Matt Birtles, Principal Ergonomics Consultant at HSE’s Science and Research Centre, about the different approaches to managing the risks associated with Musculoskeletal disorders.
Matt, an ergonomics and human factors expert, shares his thoughts on why MSDs are important, the various prevalent rates across the UK, what you can do within your own organisation and the Risk Management process surrounding MSD’s.
