CW Dobbs and Son Ltd, a farming company in Lincolnshire, has been fined after a worker broke his leg when he was hit by a forklift truck. Algis Jevsejevas was walking through a potato grading shed when the accident happened. Whilst on his way to collect labels for boxes, Mr Jevsejevas was hit by the reversing forklift truck, fracturing his leg.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the company had not organised the shed so that segregation was in place in order to allow vehicles and pedestrians to move around safely.
The company pleaded guilty to breaching the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations SI 1992/3004 and were fined £7,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,588. The Regulations clearly state that every workplace must be organised so that pedestrians and vehicles can circulate safely.
HSE Inspector Neil Ward said: "This incident need not have happened. The company should have made sure, so far as was reasonably practicable, that there was physical segregation between its workers and its vehicles. Since the incident, the farmer has put up a barrier but has also moved the labels to another part of the shed, next to the grading line, so people don't have to walk across the shed. This goes to show how simple and inexpensive preventative measures can be."
