Company fined for lack of control of Fork Lift Trucks

A cast iron bar manufacturer that neglected the risks to pedestrians from moving workplace transport has been fined £100,000 after an employee was struck by a forklift truck.

The employee was in the holding bay carrying out checks on the bars when he was hit by a forklift and sustained a fractured leg. Following this incident in January 2018 (at United Cast Bar (UK)’s factory in Chesterfield), the company was sentenced at Chesterfield Magistrates’ Court. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the company had failed to risk assess the mix of vehicle and pedestrian traffic at the holding bay area. “The measures employed after the accident by the company demonstrated that there were reasonably practicable measures that could have prevented the accident,” it said.

United Cast Bar, which produces continuous cast iron for industries including oil and gas, automotive, hydraulics and pneumatics, and glass manufacture, pleaded guilty to breaching s 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act. United Cast Bar (UK) Ltd pleaded to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, and has been fined £100,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1,439.17.

Its latest full-year accounts filed with Companies House show the company’s 2017 turnover of £23.8m was 21% up on the previous year.

After the hearing HSE inspector David Keane said: “Companies can prevent accidents between pedestrians and forklift trucks by identifying the potential risks and implementing simple safety measures to segregate vehicles and pedestrians.”