Company fined after worker suffers life-changing injury

A grain milling company has today been fined after a worker lost his right leg after being struck by a fork lift truck.

Chester Crown Court heard how, on 1 September 2015, two employees of Morning Foods Limited, 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 fork lift truck, injuring his right leg which later required amputation below the knee.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) 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 and ordered to pay costs of £35,000.

Speaking after the incident, 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.”

 Notes to Editors:

1. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. We prevent work-related death, injury and ill health through regulatory actions that range from influencing behaviours across whole industry sectors through to targeted interventions on individual businesses. These activities are supported by globally recognised scientific expertise. hse.gov.uk
2. More about the legislation referred to in this case can be found at: legislation.gov.uk/
3. HSE news releases are available at http://press.hse.gov.uk
4. http://www.hse.gov.uk/workplacetransport/index.htm