Prosecutions

A Rochdale plastics manufacturer has been fined £140,000 after a cleaner was crushed to death by a pallet of bags weighing nearly one and a half tonnes.

The company was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following the incident for failing to ensure the safety of its employees, and not having a worker trained in First Aid on duty.

Manchester Crown Court heard that the employee was cleaning up a spillage in the yard on 15 July 2005 when a wooden pallet, containing 55 bags of polypropylene, fell on him.

The material, which is used to manufacture washing up bowls, buckets and other plastic products, is dangerous to stack as it can pour out if there is a tear in a bag, making the stack unstable.

The employee was found trapped under one of the collapsed pallets and died from his injuries at the scene.

A Principal Inspectors for the HSE commented:

 "This employee died because his employer didn't treat the health and safety of its workers as a priority. There were labels on the polypropylene bags that made it clear how they should be stored safely but this advice was ignored.

"The company didn't provide guidance about how to stack the pallets, and no one trained in First Aid was on duty to help try to resuscitate the employee when the pallet fell on him.

"Since the employees’ death, the company has changed how it stores pallets so that it no longer stacks them on top of each other. If this action had been taken previously, the employee may still be alive today."

The company pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and Regulation 3(2) of the Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations 1981.

The company was fined £140,000 at Manchester Crown Court and ordered to an additional £10,588 towards the cost of the prosecution.