Derbyshire-based firm Vinyl Compound Ltd was fined \u00a3450,000 earlier this month after 19-year old forklift driver Ben Pallier-Singleton was crushed to death in 2015.<\/p>\n
A \u00a3300,000 fine was also levelled at Vacu-Lug Traction Tyres Ltd in Grantham this month after forklift driver Stephen Woollas was killed in October 2014.<\/p>\n
Phil Chesworth, Managing Director of Pallet Trucks UK, said: \u201cThe fact that the deaths of these two employees could have been avoided by enforcing proper safety regulations makes them even more terrible for everyone involved, and should serve as a reminder to all firms using forklifts to enforce proper safety procedures.<\/p>\n
\u201cA young man with his life ahead of him and a father with a child has died because of a lack of care to worker safety. These enormous fines, \u00a3450,000 and \u00a3300,000 respectively, will have a detrimental effect on the two companies; I urge any business using a forklift or who buys our forklift products to consider their procedures and training.\u201d<\/p>\n
Singleton was found to have not been wearing a seatbelt at the time of his death, hadn\u2019t been told about the on-site speed limits and hadn\u2019t been trained properly to use a forklift.<\/p>\n
Woollas died because the requirement for him to reverse his forklift in wasn\u2019t enforced, and as a result of this he drove over a tyre which toppled his forklift and crushed him to death.<\/p>\n
Chesworth added: \u201cAside from procedure and training, it\u2019s also vital that drivers are equipped with the right length of fork extensions for the job; lifting a load weighing multiple tonnes with forks that are too short could also result in the vehicle and the load toppling over.”<\/p>\n
Pallet Trucks UK has urged firms using forklifts to guarantee the safety of their workers, after two businesses were fined for the deaths of their employees<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[309],"tags":[689,676,652,432],"stakeholder_rel_tag":[],"contributor_rel_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-35163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-health-safety-news","7":"tag-equipment","8":"tag-construction","9":"tag-construction-vehicles","10":"tag-health-safety"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n