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Stone merchant fined after forklift fatality

19 Jul 16 A Manchester builders’ merchant has been ordered to pay almost £50,000 following a forklift truck accident that lead to the death of an employee.

Stone Superstore Ltd was fined £40,000 and ordered to pay Manchester City Council costs of £9,221 at Manchester Crown Court on Tuesday 12th July 2016.

The conviction followed an accident at its Matthew Street warehouse in Gorton on 29 October 2010 that resulted in the death of an employee, 27-year-old Soran Aziz, after a crate containing a tonne of stone floor tiles spilled from a forklift truck.

Mr Aziz suffered serious head injuries and died in hospital two days after the incident.

Council environmental health officers visited the site and found that the forklift truck driver who had spilled the tiles had received no formal training.

The court also heard that although two forklift trucks were being used daily at the warehouse none of the company’s employees had ever received any formal training.

Stone Superstore was convicted for offences under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. It pleaded guilty to two counts, one of a failure to adequately train, supervise and instruct staff and a further charge of a failure to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment. The fine of £40,000 was awarded for the first count with no separate penalty being given for the second count.

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MPU
MPU

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