A produce company in East Yorkshire has been told it must pay £46,000 after two workers suffered serious injuries from reversing forklift trucks in two separate incidents at its factory in Chicksands, Bedfordshire.
The first incident occurred in January 2015 at MyFresh Prepared Produce as 43-year-old warehouse team leader Chris Bottesch, of Flitwick, was talking to his colleague in the goods yard.
An investigation into the incident, conducted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that there had been minimal restrictions on vehicles and pedestrian activity in the busy goods yard with no limited specified routes for pedestrians across the factory. Mr Bottesch sustained multiple fractures to his right leg, foot and hip after he was trapped between two of the forklifts. He underwent surgery which saw him having metal pins and plates inserted into his leg and suffered nerve damage, leaving him with drop foot. He needed to take a year off work before he returned to an administrative role, because his injuries meant that he was no longer able to carry out the tasks involved in his former position.
Hessle-based MyFresh was told by the HSE that it must make a number of changes to improve the safety of workers and was served with an Improvement Notice, which required that the improvements must be made by 29th April. However, on 23rd April, just six days before the compliance date, a second incident occurred in the same yard.
On this occasion a quality control technician, who has requested not to be named, was hit by a reversing forklift truck whilst he inspected raw material. He suffered a fracture to his lower left leg as a result of the incident.
The court heard that both of these incidents could have been prevented if the work in the goods yard, in particular that regarding vehicle movements, had been better controlled and managed.
MyFresh Prepared Produce Ltd was fined a total of £38,000 for the incident as well as £8,320 in costs and a £120 victim surcharge after it pleaded guilty to breaching the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974.
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