National bike and car part retailer Halfords Ltd was ordered to pay a total of £213,406.35 by Blackburn Magistrates' Court, for breaching a number of health and safety provisions.
The court heard that in December 2016 an employee was working at the store in Mariner's Way, Preston, and had been asked by the store manager to start moving a delivery of boxed bikes to the upstairs area of the store for them to be assembled.
72 boxed bikes had been delivered to the store the previous day and had been stacked two or three high on their narrow ends. There was a variety of sizes of bikes, each weighing between 10-20 kg. No supports had been used to secure the bikes or to prevent them from toppling over.
Whilst removing a boxed bike from the stack, some of the boxes fell forward onto other boxes, causing a domino effect, resulting in the employee being pinned to the wall by a number of heavy boxes. They fell on his chest causing him difficulty when breathing. It was later learnt that the employee had suffered a suspected cracked rib.
An investigation by health and safety inspectors from Preston council revealed that Halfords failed to:
It was found during the investigation that the store was overstocked by 91 bikes and the bike storage areas were overcrowded.
During the investigation, health and safety inspectors said they were misled by Halfords who told them that this was an isolated incident, when further enquiries by the council found this was not the case. The council also discovered that similar incidents had happened at other stores which had failed to implement recommended control measures.
Following the incident Halfords had:
The court was shown evidence that Halfords had reduced bike stock in all stores by approximately 65,000 units and that the company had a good health and safety record, having never previously been prosecuted for health and safety offences since the company was formed in 1909.
The judge said that Halfords had substantial health and safety systems in place but they had not been adhered to, in that they were shown to be inadequate. He expressed concern by the fact the company were slow to react, but recognised the level of investment by Halfords in risk assessment, and the way they tackled the issue.
Craig Sharp, chief environmental officer at Preston City Council said "we are pleased that the outcome reflected the seriousness of this case and the Court imposed a substantial fine on Halfords Ltd. It was fortunate that more serious injuries were not suffered by the employee".
"Any employees with serious workplace safety concerns should raise those with their employer, or if necessary contact the council’s Environmental Health service".
Halfords pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, was fined £200,000, ordered to pay council costs of £13,286.35 and a victim surcharge of £120.
A Halfords spokesperson said the "health and safety of our colleagues is of the utmost importance to us. We accept that, in this isolated case which occurred three years ago, our health and safety procedures were not as robust as they could have been and this led to the accident and we apologise unreservedly for this".
"We are committed to maintaining the best possible health and safety procedures and continuing to ensure that Halfords remains a safe place to work for all our colleagues, and in the last 18 months have launched a new health and safety policy and company-wide training programme to ensure that best practice is adopted throughout our organisation".
