Security
Guard Fined After Unauthorised Lift Truck Use Leads to Serious
Injury
The danger of inexperienced
or untrained workers using fork-lift trucks has been highlighted
by the recent prosecution of a teenage security guard. Leeds
Magistrates' Court heard that the 19 year old Guard, an employee
of an outside security company, was guarding a factory in
the city in March 2007.
Prosecuting, Michael Elliker said that the security guard
had been specifically Instructed not to use any work equipment
at the plant by both his employer and the cardboard packaging
firm that owned the site.
Despite this he agreed to help unload a consignment of cardboard
from a delivery lorry. During the job, a 728 kilogram pallet
fell from forks of the lift truck he was operating, striking
63-year-old lorry driver.
Elliker told the court that the driver suffered a fractured
pelvis, foot and ribs, as well as spinal injuries,
The Security Guard admitted breaching Section 7(a) of the
Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and was ordered to pay
£250, in mitigation, he said that he had felt pressured
Into helping the delivery driver unload the pallets
.
"This case demonstrates all too clearly what can happen
when an inexperienced and untrained driver gets
behind the wheel of a fork-lift truck," investigating
HSE inspector Kathryn Wells told Safety
Management after the case. "Although fork-lift trucks
are used throughout industry, they are not a straightforward
piece of machinery to operate and drivers require specific
and thorough training. "Last year there were 70 deaths
from workplace transport activities and around 2,000 major
injuries. Fork-lift trucks account for around a quarter of
these," She added: "No-one should be permitted to
use a lift truck unless they have been selected, trained and
authorised to do so."
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