Food firm fined for forklift failures

Prosecutions and Claims |
15.09.2007

A Wrexham frozen food manufacturer has been fined £25,000 for two fork-lift truck accidents in 11 days, one of which left an employee with "horrific and agonising" injuries.

Pann Krisp pleaded guilty to two charges under Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act of failing to ensure employees' safety at work.

On 3 July 2005, Patrick Brindley suffered back injuries after the forklift he was operating fell into a gap between a trailer and a loading platform.

Pann Krisp had installed temporary refrigerated trailers after experiencing problems with the roof of its cold store. Air suspension systems raised the trailers to the same height as the loading bays, and loading trucks entered them via steel "fixing bridges". When air leaking from suspension systems occasionally caused trailers to drop below the level of the loading bay, a tractor unit was used to pump up the suspension.

On the day of the accident, as Brindley drove a pallet truck from a trailer, the trailer dropped suddenly and the truck slipped down between the loading bay and the trailer. HSE inspector Stephen Window told HSW the firm had not properly risk assessed this operation and had ignored workers' warnings about the air leakage.

Later the same month, on 14 July, Percy Vaughan Guest was struck by a forklift in a narrow, unmarked track at the back of the factory after leaving his own truck to reload pallets that had twice fallen off.

Guest's left leg was almost severed and he lost a large amount of blood; he was "very, very lucky" not to have been killed, said Window.

Guest suffered two broken legs, spent four months in hospital and was unable to walk for nearly two years. He still has to use crutches.

The passageway in which the accident occurred was not large enough to accommodate two trucks at the same time and there had been a lack of planning and supervision.

Pann Krisp was fined £15,000 plus £6,311 for the accident involving Guest and £10,000 plus £2,385 costs for Brindley's accident.

District Judge Andrew Shaw described Guest's accident as "horrific and agonising", but took account of the firm's guilty pleas and its poor financial position when setting the fine.