Profile Patterns fined £24,000 after multiple injuries caused by unsafe forklift truck practice.

Profile Patterns Limited, a carpet sample book manufacturer, was fined £24,435 (inc. costs) after two workers were seriously injured in an incident where a forklift truck crashed into an onsite refuse skip.

The circumstances were:

• The accident occurred during the emptying of bins using a forklift truck.
• Profile Patterns Limited did not take effective measures to ensure the health and safety of employees in relation to the risks arising from the use and operation of forklift trucks. 
• They failed to implement a safe system of work
• They failed to provide adequate instruction and training to employees.
• The method used for tipping bins into the skip placed employees at significant risk
• The method was normal working practice that had taken place over a considerable length of time.
• On 29 July 2019, three workers were emptying waste from plastic bins.
• They were using a forklift truck to raise the bins to a height.
• Then a worker at either side of the truck manually tipped the bins into a skip.
• One of the bins became trapped between the side of the skip and the forks.
• The driver of the forklift truck climbed on top of the skip to free the bin whilst the other two employees remained standing at either side of the forklift truck.
• Another employee was asked to reverse the forklift truck to aid the release of the bin.
• After reversing, the forklift truck then moved forward.
• It crashed into the skip causing the employee on top of the skip to fall.
• One of the workers standing at the side of the truck became impaled by her right arm by the fork. 
• The two workers sustained serious fractures that required hospital treatment.

The HSE inspector said:
“The risk of injury from this unsafe working practice was foreseeable and the incident could so easily have been avoided. Profile Patterns Limited should have put in place a number of safety measures including appropriate segregation of vehicles and pedestrians and a safe system of work for emptying the bins. Those in control of work also have a responsibility to provide the necessary information, instruction and training to their workers in order to carry out work safely.”