Firms fined after delivery driver injured

Brighouse Pallet Services and Seal It Services have been fined for safety breaches after a HGV driver suffered a fracture to his neck.

Leeds Magistrates’ Court heard that on August 5, 2020, the delivery driver, an employee of Brighouse Pallet Services was struck by one or two falling pallets while they were being unloaded from a HGV trailer by a Seal It Services fork-lift truck (FLT) operator.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that both companies failed in their duty to provide a safe system of work.

They failed to put in place simple control measures to ensure that all delivery drivers who visited the Seal It Services site were moved to a safe location for waiting while HGV trailers were being unloaded by FLTs.

Brighouse Pallet Services of Elland Road, Brighouse, West Yorkshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

The company was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay £4806.60 in costs.

Seal It Services Ltd of Riverbank Way, Elland, West Yorkshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

The company was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay £4,654.90 in costs.

After the court hearing, HSE inspector David Welsh, said: “Loading and unloading of HGVs by FLTs are among the most dangerous transport activities in the workplace. People can by hit by falling objects, struck by FLTs, or fall from vehicles.

“All such incidents can result in serious personal injury and the risks involved must be managed by all those who have legal duties for the safety of delivery drivers, both their employer and the sites they deliver to.

“This incident could so easily have been avoided by implementing the simple control measure of keeping the delivery driver out of the area where the FLT was operating to maintain a safe system of work.”

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety.