Court fines firm £7,500 following fatal accident
A FIRM has been fined more than £7,000 after admitted failings in an accident which left a worker dead.
Trackline has been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive after 32-year-old Shaun Porter died at its Bourne branch in Pinfold Road, on August 1, 2007.
Today the firm, which manufactures earthmoving equipment, was fined 7,500 and ordered to pay 6,690 costs at Lincoln Crown Court after pleading guilty to failing to discharge a duty of care at work.
Employee Shaun Porter, of Exeter Close, Bourne, had been moving a large steel assembly from one end of the factory to the other when the accident happened.
A hearing at Spalding Magistrates Court in July heard that Mr Porter died after he attempted to lift the forks on the forklift truck he was driving in order to avoid a chassis.
When the fork and chasis became entangled, the truck tipped over and Mr Porter was crushed beneath it as he tried to jump clear.
The Health and Safety Executive has warned other companies to learn from this incident by managing transport in the workplace by following measures such as making sure areas are clear and lines are clearly marked out.
Health and safety inspector Jo Anderson said: "Today we have heard how a death could have been avoided.
"Companies must understand the importance of managing transport in the workplace in order to prevent a tragedy like this happening again in the future."
Northampton-based firm Trackline pleaded guilty to failing to comply with Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 in failing to provide a safe system of work, including factory organisation and load handling arrangements for the operation of forklift trucks.
The Health and Safety Executive found there to be a lack of marked out access ways and gangways and no way of assessing size or weight of loads.
Employees were found to be moving around in unofficial routes with no official gangway.
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