HSE Investigation Highlights Safety Problems

A workplace injury specialist at Irwin Mitchell has called on all agricultural firms to assess their traffic management, after a firm was fined in relation to an incident which left an agency worker with a leg fracture.

CW Dobbs and Son Ltd has been fined £7,000 and ordered to pay costs over the work accident, which saw Algis Jevsejevas suffer the leg injury when he was hit by a forklift truck at the company’s premises near Spalding in October last year.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive revealed that a failure to organise the premises so that both vehicles and pedestrians could move safely meant that the worker was hit when the truck reversed.

Stephen Nye, an expert in injuries at work at Irwin Mitchell’s Birmingham office, said: “This kind of case is sadly uncommon and we act for a number of people who have been hurt due to employers failing to adequately address the issue of traffic management in and around workplaces.

“We have repeatedly called for health and safety to be a priority for all businesses and will continue to do so until incidents like this – which are fully preventable with the right guidance – become a thing of the past.

“It is also vital that employers recognise the dangers of not thinking about workplace safety and the devastating consequences such failings can have on so many lives.”