A South Yorkshire firm, 4Ls Products Ltd, has been fined £15,000 after breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
It was prosecuted following an incident in which an employee suffered two broken legs, when radiators that had been stacked on pallets in a warehouse fell onto him.
The protocol had been to stack radiators four pallets high with ten radiators on each pallet. However, in 2008, the number of radiators stacked on each pallet was increased by the supplier from ten to 14. Prosecution lawyers said one stack became unstable and collapsed, bringing down with it a second radiator stack.
Cynthia Ransome, Doncaster Council's cabinet member for regulatory services said, "We take health and safety enforcement very seriously and anyone found not complying with the regulations will be prosecuted."
Doncaster Council subsequently served an improvement notice on the company, which required it to provide a safe system of work for block stacking radiators. The Council stated the company co-operated and had reviewed its work methods and reduced the height of the block stacking. They also introduced a separate pick-up area in order to ensure staff picking up radiators did not have to work close to stacked products.
