Minteq fined £223,217 after employee was killed whilst using a pedestrian walkway that ran down the centre of a roadway used by vehicles

Minteq UK, a Birmingham company trading as Specialty Minerals that manufactures chemicals used in sealants and pharmaceuticals, was fined £223,217 (inc.costs) after an employee was struck and killed by a forklift truck while walking in an area of the site designated for pedestrians.

The circumstances were:

• The accident occurred on an external pedestrian walkway that ran down the centre of the roadway used by vehicles.
• The pedestrian walkway formed part of a roadway connecting the car park to the rear of the site.
• There were inadequate measures in place to separate pedestrians from vehicles at the plant.
• The HSE served an improvement notice against Minteq UK on 3 August 2017, which highlighted that the site road was not organised in such a way that vehicles and pedestrians could circulate in a safe manner.  Minteq had complied with this.
• The accident occurred to Christine Workman who was using this designated, but unprotected, pedestrian walkway.
• Workman suffered severe crush injuries and died 15 days later at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.

The HSE inspector said: “Far too many people are killed and seriously injured by vehicles in the workplace every year. Provisional data for 2018/19 shows that of the 147 workers fatally injured, 30 of them were as a result of being struck by a moving vehicle. Many hundreds are left with life-changing injuries. The requirement to ensure adequate separation and segregation between pedestrians and vehicles is paramount. This tragic and wholly avoidable incident highlights the need for companies to comply with their legal duty to identify what can kill and seriously hurt people in their workplace and take steps to stop that happening.”