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 Forklift accidents

The causes, injuries and court cases. Up to December 2014

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The really good news is that accidents involving forklift trucks in the United Kingdom have decreased over time. In the year to April 2013 there were only six fatal accidents which although too many, is much lower than the 30 annual deaths that were reported annually when I started in the forklift industry in 1970.

Some of the more recent forklift accidents that have come to my attention are listed below and I will update these on an ongoing basis. The fines seem to be getting larger!

(I have deliberately removed the names of people and companies involved in these accidents to avoid further upset to those concerned)

There are eighty other older accidents described elsewhere on this website More


 

Dec 10th 2014. Two companies have been fined after a lorry driver suffered multiple injuries whilst loading his lorry. More

Dec 5th 2014. A court has fined a telehandler operator £7,000, while the building company he was working for was fined £7,500 plus £25,000 in costs following a fatal accident. More

Nov 25th 2014. A Glasgow based construction company has been fined for serious safety failings after a worker was severely injured when he was crushed under nearly two tonnes of plasterboard. More

Oct 28th 2014. A North Lanarkshire employer has been fined for safety failings which led to a worker being killed after he was thrown from a forklift truck and crushed. More.

Oct 2nd 2014. Basingstoke company fined after telescopic materials handler crushes man. More

Oct 1st 2014. Forklift manufacturer fined after forklift falls of lorry ramp injuring worker. More

Sep 10th 2014. A North London meat wholesalers has been sentenced for operating a fault ridden forklift truck and trying to deceive safety inspectors by forging a positive examination report on the vehicle. More

Aug 27th 2014. A food packaging company in Buxton has been fined after an employee suffered severe injuries to his leg when he was struck by a forklift truck. More

Aug 21st 2014.A Stonehaven animal feed company has been fined £240,000 after a lorry driver was crushed to death when a two-tonnes, fully-loaded grain bin fell onto him from a forklift truck. More

Aug. 5th 2014. Forklift accident costs timber firm almost £25,000 in fines and costs after employee is run over by a forklift truck. More

July 31st 2014. An Aberdeen firm has been fined for safety failings after a worker was injured when a forklift truck ran over his leg and foot. More

July 30th 2014. A Global engineering specialist has been ordered to pay more than £615,000 in fines and costs after a worker was killed when a telehandler overturned. More

July 11th 2014. A Leicestershire recycling company has been fined after two contractors fell more than two metres while fixing a roller-shutter door. More

June 26th 2014. A Trowbridge company and one of its directors have been fined for safety failings after a worker was seriously injured in a four metre fall from an unsecured metal platform balanced on the raised forks of a fork lift truck. More

June 25th 2014. A Tyneside company has appeared in court for safety breaches for the second time in less than a year after a forklift truck overturned at its factory in Burnopfield. More

June 24th 2014. A company has been fined £175,000 after a female employee aged 49 was crushed to death by a fork lift truck at its Avonmouth warehouse. More

June 12th 2014. Two engineering businesses have been fined for safety failings after a worker’s hand was crushed while unloading steel beams with a forklift. More

June 11th 2014. A plastics recycling company has been fined for serious safety failings after a worker was stuck by a reversing forklift truck at its Hemswell site. More

May 21st 2014. The owner of a skip hire firm in Bacup has been fined after he was filmed putting an employee’s life in danger by lifting him in a telehandler bucket. More

May 20th 2014. A sauces manufacturer has been fined £140,000 after a forklift truck driver was killed at a factory in Runcorn. More

May 19th 2014. A farming company in Middlewich has been fined £50,000 after a father of one suffered fatal injuries when a 1.5 tonne concrete panel fell on him. More

May 9th 2014. A forklift truck operator has been prosecuted for safety failings after a teenager was seriously injured by a falling heater unit weighing almost half-a-tonne during a dangerous lifting operation in Kent. More

May 6th 2014. A national sweet manufacturer has been fined £120,000 plus costs after the fork on a forklift truck pierced a worker’s foot. More

Apl. 28th 2014. A Suffolk firm which makes rubber granules has been fined for safety breaches after an agency worker was severely injured when the forklift truck he was driving overturned. More.

!5th Apl. 2014. Worker struck by forklift truck has serious foot injuries. Removals company fined £5000 plus costs. More

7th Apl. 2014. An Essex based manufacturing company has been sentenced for safety failings after a forklift truck reversed into a delivery driver’s lower leg, fracturing his ankle. More

12 Mar. 2014. A former Hull company has been prosecuted after a worker was hit by a toppling metal column as the stage was being prepared for the popular Classics in the Park festival in East Yorkshire. More

11 Mar. 2014 Powys County Council has been prosecuted after an employee was seriously injured at its public services’ depot in Ystradgynlais. More

10 Mar. 2014. A Wednesbury based heating, ventilation and air conditioning manufacturer has been fined £150,000 after a worker was crushed to death while working in its warehouse. More

28 Feb. 2014 A vehicle salvage firm in Stalybridge has been fined over multiple safety failings after a car weighing more than half a tonne fell from a forklift truck, crushing a young mechanic underneath. More

24 Jan 2014. A Cheshire cheese manufacturer has been fined for safety failings after a worker injured his leg and ankle when he fell from the forks of a forklift truck during an unsafe loading operation. More

Jan 20th 2014. A Devon company has been fined after a man was seriously injured by a reversing vehicle at a recycling centre in Exeter. More

8th Jan. 2014. A Hertfordshire firm has been fined after a worker injured his knee during unsafe work to clean high level light fittings. More

Jan 3rd 2014. Employee walking across yard, struck and killed by forklift truck. Company fined more that £200,000. More

Dec 19th 2013. A Manchester firm has been ordered to pay nearly £90,000 in fines and costs after an employee was crushed by a giant fish tank that toppled off a forklift truck. More

5th Dec. 2013. One of the world’s largest producers of adhesives for the construction industry has been fined after a worker died when he was pinned against a forklift truck by a reversing lorry in Halesowen. More

Nov 19th 2013. A specialist company that makes scenery for London’s theatres and international fashion shows has been prosecuted after a carpenter was struck by a falling piece of a mock log cabin set. More

Nov 20th 2013. A recycling firm in Bolton has been fined after an employee was badly injured when he was struck by a steel beam weighing more than 100kg. More