The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has prosecuted Midland Steel Reinforcement Supplies Limited after a forklift truck overturned in a rather risky attempt to empty a skip.
A worker, which, as the HSE later found out, was untrained and unsupervised, was asked to empty bins. However, the worker thought this included small skips which contained offcuts of the reinforced steel bars that the firm supplies to the construction industry. They used a forklift truck to lift and move one of the skips to a large waste container before using the forks of the forklift to tip the skip, emptying its contents into the container.
However, the worker then went into the waste container so that they could attach a sling to the empty skip so that it could be pulled out of the container by the forklift. When trying to remove the skip, the forklift overturned. Luckily, the worker was not injured and was able to crawl out of a small gap left between the cab of the forklift and the floor.
Westminster Magistrates' Court heard that a safer method was available to empty the waste steel bars in the form of tipper skips, which were in use on other parts of the site.
HSE inspector Maria Strangward said, "The forklift truck should have never have been used to lift and manoeuvre the skip in this way. It was a system and method of work that posed clear risk, and the worker is extremely fortunate to avoid being seriously injured – possibly even killed had the forklift struck and crushed him as it overturned. The onus is on employers like Midland Steel Reinforcement Supplies to ensure operations are properly planned, managed and supervised, and that adequate training, instruction and equipment is provided at all times to protect workers."
As a result of the prosecution, Midland Steel Reinforcement Supplies Limited were fined £17,500 and ordered to pay £11,000 in costs after pleading guilty to two breaches of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations SI 1998/2306.
