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Investigation finds poor segregation to blame for forklift death on farm
06 January 2014
A Spalding farming business has been ordered to pay more than £200,000 in fines and costs after a farm manager was killed when he was hit by a forklift truck.
Peter Barney, 58, of Broadgate, Weston, was walking from his car across the yard at Middle Farm on Mill Marsh Road in Moulton Seas End when he was struck on 31 October 2010.
His employer, Lincolnshire Field Products, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after an investigation found the company did not have effective measures in place to allow vehicles and pedestrians to move around the site safely.
Lincoln Crown Court heard today (3 January) that Mr Barney, who had worked for the firm for 38 years, was making his way to a potato grading shed when he crossed the path of a forklift being driven by a farm employee. He died at the scene of the incident after being crushed by the vehicle.
"Safety consultants had carried out a risk assessment which highlighted the need for pedestrians and vehicles to be segregated, but the firm did not fully implement these findings.”
Safety consultants had carried out a risk assessment in 2003 which highlighted the need for pedestrians and vehicles to be segregated, but the firm did not fully implement these findings.
Workers were allowed to park their cars in areas of the site, which meant they walked across the path of workplace vehicles when walking to, or from, their cars. Some workers used the same entrance to the grading shed as the forklift truck.
Industry reaction
Diane Etchell, H&S trainer, consultant and expert witness
Changing culture is the most difficult aspect. I have lost count of the times I was told, ‘well it's never happened before’ when investigating accidents or fatalities. Sadly Government cuts mean fewer proactive inspections.
Andrew Avis, safety management consultant
I use the lottery to explain risk event likelihood to those who are unfamiliar with it. There may be a low likelihood of an incident occurring, but why do millions buy a lottery ticket each week with odds of tens of millions to one of actually winning a meaningful sum of money? People still believe it can happen, and remember, there are people that win at the first time of asking.
Simon Duddy, editor, Handling & Storage Solutions
Many businesses carry out risk assessments that are then largely left in a desk drawer and under-referred to. I think this complacent culture should be the real target of health and safety campaigns.
The logical leap that would have prevented this accident (use different access routes for forklifts and people) is easy. What is hard is creating a culture that keeps that in mind and enforced on a continual basis. It's quite possible that forklifts and pedestrians shared routes hundreds (maybe thousands) of times without incident at this farm. Probably the likelihood of a forklift hitting someone on this farm was relatively low, remember the risk assessment was ignored for 10 years without incident. It's just that when a forklift hits someone, the result is typically catastrophic. How do you convince people to continually take a risk seriously when it seems improbable and hasn't occurred for years (or ever)? We all have the potential to become complacent.
Martin Hippsley, independent health and safety trainer and consultant
Surely part of the answer to this problem lay in the report: 'workers were allowed to park their cars in areas of the site, which meant they walked across the path of workplace vehicles when walking to, or from, their cars'.
Had the car park arrangements been changed then it is more likely that the custom and practice route would have also changed. As for what management can do, they should follow the advice they have been given, enforce the rules, lead by example and not wait for the remote but foreseeable occurrence to happen.
Lincolnshire Field Products, of Wool Hall Farm, Wykeham, Spalding, was fined a total of £165,000 and ordered to pay £39,500 in costs after pleading guilty to two breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
After the hearing, HSE Inspector Neil Ward said: "If Lincolnshire Field Products had taken effective steps to keep employees safe, Mr Barney would still be alive today.
"The company should have managed the yard so that people and vehicles were not sharing the same space. Sadly, Mr Barney lost his life because this simple procedure wasn’t in place.”
"Employees on foot were using the same doorway as the forklift truck, which meant there was a significant risk of them being struck.
"The company should have managed the yard so that people and vehicles were not sharing the same space. Sadly, Mr Barney lost his life because this simple procedure wasn’t in place.”
The Handling & Storage Solutions Safer Logistics Campaign
Handling & Storage Solutions has launched the Safer Logistics campaign to promote health and safety awareness in logistics in 2014.
We were inspired to launch the campaign by the Health and Safety Executive encouraging all stakeholders to show leadership and ‘be part of the solution’.
It is vital to push home the message that poor health & safety practices have no place in the modern logistics world.
What you can do
Clear safety first principles are worth repeating.
- If you doubt the safety of a working practice, stop. Talk to your supervisor or manager and agree a safe way of proceeding. Don’t carry on and hope for the best.
- No matter who you are in the management structure or workforce, take responsibility for your safety, don’t assume someone else has taken care of it.
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