Prosecutions

Manufacturer fined after employee falls from height 21/12/2009 The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) recently prosecuted a major food manufacturer for breaching Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. The company pleaded guilty and was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,500.

The court heard that on 28 January 2007, a warehouse worker was seriously injured in an accident at the company’s premises. At the time of the incident, the employee was preparing pallets for delivery to the company's retail shops. He was working in a raised man-riding cage, which was not properly fixed to the forklift truck. Whilst raised to height of approximately 4.6 metres, the cage slipped off the forks and fell. The employee was unconscious in hospital for two days and suffered swelling to the brain, a broken hand, broken elbow, cracked ribs and a dislocated knee.

The HSE investigated the company as a result of the accident, which showed that the company did not have adequate measures in place to control the risks of working at height. The cage used was not suitable for order picking and the work was being carried in an unsafe manner. A colleague working on the ground below the cage narrowly escaped injury as the cage fell.

Falls from height remain the single biggest single cause of fatal injuries at work. Each year around 60 people are killed and over 4,000 major injuries are caused by falls in the workplace.

The risk of harm from falling from the working platform was clearly foreseeable. Had this work been properly planned or supervised, then this incident could easily have been prevented.

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