Recycling Company Fined After Employee Suffers A Brain Injury
Countryside Recycling Limited has been fined £666,700.00 and ordered to pay costs of £8,424.00 by Folkestone Magistrates Court after a worker was injured in a telehandler incident.
An employee had instructed another colleague to use a telehandler to move paper at the Company’s site. The cab was then left unattended whilst the telehandler was running. The telehandler’s boom was elevated and another employee lowered it. The boom struck the head of an employee who was standing below the raised boom, causing serious brain injuries, which have prevented him from returning to work.
The Health and Safety Executive found that Section 2(1) and 17(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 were breached in that the Company had failed to suitably plan the management and overseeing of workplace transport activities on site and employees had not received the appropriate level of training in order to safely operate the telehandlers on site.