A manufacturing company has been fined after an employee was found fatally injured under the forks of a side-loader lift truck.
On 2 September 2019, an employee with Cutting Edge Trading Limited, Mitchell Poutney, was fatally injured at the company site on Station Road, Rowley Regis, West Midlands during a lifting operation. The unsupported forks and carriage of a side-loader lift truck descended, crushing him whilst he was working underneath it.
An investigation by the HSE found the company had failed to provide a safe system of work for unloading palletised goods using the side-loader forklift truck.
Cutting Edge Trading Limited pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £18,000 and ordered to pay costs of £10,153.
Speaking after the hearing, HSE Principal Inspector Jenny Skeldon said: “This tragic incident could have easily been prevented if this employer had acted to identify and manage the risks involved and put a safe system of work in place.”
HSE February 2022