Employee seriously injured after forklift overturns

Worsley Projects Limited trading as Egan Projects, had been employed by Edmundson Electrical to carry out refurbishment work on a new unit that they had leased. This included installing new IT cabling between the new unit and the existing building.

Manchester Magistrates’ Court heard that on 23 June 2015, the new cabling was being attached to existing cabling approximately 7 metres above road surface, with plastic cable ties. The work was nearly complete when the fork lift truck and man-riding cage overturned in an area where the road was sloped. The employee grabbed the existing cabling as the overturn occurred but then fell to the floor and suffered serious injuries to his pelvis, vertebrae and right hand.

The HSE investigation found Worsley Projects Limited trading as Egan Projects had produced a risk assessment and method statement and decided that the work be carried out using a fork lift truck and attached man-riding cage.

The incident could have been prevented by provision of more suitable equipment to avoid working on the sloping road surface.

HSE inspector David Norton said after the hearing: “Falls from height are still the most common cause of serious accidents in the workplace in the UK and many could have been prevented if the correct equipment had been selected and used. This is the situation in this case a cherry picker type Mobile Elevating Working Platform (MEWP) could have avoided the sloped road surface where the incident occurred.’’

Worsley Projects Limited trading as Egan Projects, of 19 Green Lane, Eccles was found guilty of breaching Regulation 4(1) of the Working at Height Regulations 2005 and was fined £10,000 with £1,194.35 costs.