HSE has prosecuted a Hertfordshire-based paper company after a worker suffered multiple injuries when he was struck by a 3.2 tonne reel of paper at its premises in Essex in September 2013. The subsequent investigation found that the company had failed to act on advice from its own safety consultants for three consecutive years.
Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court heard on 15 January that on the day of the incident the 45-year-old worker, from Peckham, was helping to load the reel onto a container at Aspenlink’s premises on the Childerditch Industrial Estate, Brentwood.
The man, who was in the container, was hit by the reel after it was released by a forklift truck, trapping him between the reel and the bulkhead of the container.
He sustained a double fracture to his pelvis, as well as internal injuries, remaining in hospital for almost a month. He has had to undergo a series of operations, and has only recently returned to work.
On investigation, HSE found the company had failed to act on advice from its own safety consultants for three consecutive years from 2010. Aspenlink was advised of the need to carry out a proper risk assessment and introduce a safe system of work for loading paper reels.
Aspenlink Ltd, of Park Street, St Albans, was fined £13,500 and ordered to pay £1,200 in costs after pleading guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
After the hearing, HSE inspector Keith Waller said: “This was an entirely avoidable incident. The dangers associated with paper reels, in particular the risks associated with their loading and unloading, are well-known in the industry and entirely foreseeable.
“Aspenlink was first made aware of the numerous shortcomings in its management of health and safety by its own health and safety consultant in 2010 – some three years before the incident – but it failed to act on this advice.
“The company should have carried out proper assessment of the risks facing workers. Instead, it waited for an employee to be seriously injured before taking any action.”
