An employee was working from an unsecured stillage set on a forklift truck so that he could clean office windows. The stillage tipped and he fell 3.5 metres to the ground, breaking a leg and injuring an elbow.
The incident happened on 14th June 2021 at the head office site of Staircraft Group on the Bayton Road Industrial Estate in Exhall, Coventry.
An investigation by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) found the company failed to identify that using a stillage to lift someone on the forks of a forklift truck, a method that they had used before, was unsafe. There was a lack of training for employees on the dangers of working at height without the proper equipment and there were no systems of work or risk assessments in place.
At Redditch Magistrates’ Court Staircraft Group Limited pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1974. The company was fined £200,000 and ordered to pay costs of £6,477.93.
HSE inspector Rebecca Whiley said after the hearing: “The employee’s injuries were very serious, and he could have easily been killed. This serious incident could so easily have been avoided by simply carrying out correct control measures and safe working practices.”
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