£350,000 fine for fork truck fatality
 A housing development company was fined £350,000 after Winchester Crown Court heard that an untrained fork lift truck operator was crushed to death after his machine overturned on a construction site. The 19 year old driver was transporting materials around a construction site in Fleet, Hampshire when the accident happened on March 29th 2000.
The deceased was using a counterbalanced truck fitted with a telescopic boom to move 17 large wooden roof trusses when the truck was driven over an area of rough soil it overturned landing partially on it's side. The trusses fell onto the ground and initially prevented the machine from turning over completely. The operator then tried to climb out of the truck but when he managed to get his head out the trusses collapsed and the truck fell completely onto it's side crushing the operator who died instantly.
The court heard that he had not received adequate training on the safe use of lift trucks although he had been working at the site for 3 months. It transpired that he had received only half a days training on counterbalanced machines which was deemed to be totally inadequate. An independent health and safety consultant had visited the site just 3 weeks before the accident and warned that the deceased should not be allowed to operate counterbalanced trucks. The court heard that a second operator had also been operating trucks at another site in Verwood, Dorset despite a lack of adequate training.
The company was fined £350,000 for 2 offences under section 2 of the Health and safety at Work Act along with the full prosecution costs of £14,754.85
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