Dairy firm fined after ‘life-changing’ fall
The County Durham firm was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after the worker fractured an eye socket, sustained bleeding in his skull, suffered multiple collar bone fractures and broke a rib.
The employee, Simon Atkinson, had to be put into an induced coma until surgery was carried out to remove a blood clot from inside his skull.
Awaiting further surgery
Peterlee Magistrates’ Court was told Atkinson was in hospital for nine days, has been unable to return to work and is awaiting further surgery to repair damage to his spine.
He had been unloading bottles into a storage area set 1.6m below ground level of the outside yard.
Much is unclear about the incident as the worker was alone at the time and has no recollection of the accident.
His fall was either from ground level or from the rear of the delivery vehicle, which would have been 2.6m above the concrete floor of the storage area.
The court heard a barrier had previously been in place across the doorway to the storage area to prevent falls, but this had been removed two years earlier and never replaced.
A risk assessment for the company, carried out nine months before the incident, had stated that a safe system of work and training was needed for the unloading task, but this was not carried out until after Atkinson’s fall.
The HSE’s investigation found that despite a risk assessment identifying a “likely” risk of fall, there were no measures in place to prevent one.
Lanchester Dairies pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
‘Failed to prevent it’
After the case, HSE inspector Michael Kingston said: “Lanchester Dairies was aware that the work being done by Mr Atkinson and others involved a fall risk, yet they failed to implement simple, inexpensive measures to prevent it.
“As a result Mr Atkinson suffered major, life-changing injuries and there was a real possibility that the fall could have proved fatal.”
Falls from height are one of the main causes of major injury and death in the workplace, he claimed.
“This case reinforces the need to properly assess the risks and to put in place measures to prevent falls occurring,” he added.
