Delivery driver crushed by forklift truck
A delivery driver suffered extensive injuries while making a routine delivery to a decking manufacturing company. Why was the director held personally liable as well as his company?
An HGV driver was delivering packs of 5-metre-long plastic deck boards to Ultimate Systems Ltd’s premises. The company’s director, Mr Kerr (K), used a forklift truck to unload the delivery. The packs were stacked on pallets with an approximate weight of over 2,000kg. K lifted an entire stack at once, exceeding the forklift truck’s load capacity and causing it to tip forward. The load fell onto the delivery driver, trapping him between it and the HGV.
The driver sustained crush injuries to the spine, multiple rib fractures, a broken collarbone, a punctured lung and ligament damage to his neck. He was hospitalised for six weeks, including four in an induced coma. He was unable to work for a year.
When the Health and Safety Executive investigated the incident, it found that K was not trained to operate the forklift truck. The company did not have a safe system of work for unloading or loading deck boards, and there were no rules requiring visiting drivers to wait in a safe area while loading and unloading took place.
Forklift trucks are vital pieces of equipment in many workplaces, but pose serious risks if not used safely by trained operators. Not only must the lifting operation be properly planned, supervised and carried out, but measures must be in place to protect pedestrians, as with any workplace vehicle.
Ultimate Systems Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching its duty under s.3(1) Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 to safeguard non-employees who may be affected by its operations. It was fined £38,000 and ordered to pay costs of over £3,700.
K pleaded guilty to the same breach and was sentenced to 14 weeks’ imprisonment, suspended for 18 months. He was also ordered to complete 180 hours unpaid work and to pay costs of over £3,400.
Related Topics
-
Practical guide: Tax-efficient will planning with residential property
An individual has a significant property portfolio which provides them with their sole source of income. They want to gift shares in some property to their daughter but retain the income. Can they do this without triggering the reservation of benefit rules?
-
Will HMRC treat late processed invoices as errors?
Your business processes invoices when they have been approved by budget holders, so some will be processed a month late, delaying your input tax claim. How might HMRC’s updated guidance help here?
-
Are redundancy payments tax deductible?
A seemingly simple question we’re often asked is how much tax relief a business is entitled to for redundancy payments. The answer is that it depends on the situation. How might the circumstances of a redundancy affect the tax deduction?