Courier fined following depot incident
December 22nd 17:22 Health and Safety
A transport firm has been hit with a £35,000 fine following the injury of a worker, highlighting the importance of effective facilities management in the industry.
Tuffnells Parcels Express, based in Sheffield, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after Michael Tierney broke his leg during an incident at a distribution centre in Bedfordshire in March 2008.
He fell from a vehicle he was unloading when its driver unexpectedly pulled away at the site in Leighton Buzzard, resulting in a four-foot fall that broke his thigh bone.
The company was also ordered to pay £5,134 in costs by Bedfordshire Magistrates Court and HSE inspector Graham Tompkins said that the injury was preventable.
"Reasonable practical measures the company could have put in place would have included a simple control system to prevent the driver from pulling away from the loading bay," he remarked, adding that there had been "several" other incidents at the depot.
Earlier this week, the HSE prosecuted Centrewest London Buses over failures that resulted in a worker being crushed by a vehicle at its garage in Uxbridge.
