Smurfit Kappa, fined for worker’s injuries at Caerphilly factory #flt

An employee suffered leg injuries when a reversing forklift truck struck him while working at a cardboard factory. Michael Jones, of Abercarn, was inspecting production in an area of the factory at the Prince of Wales Industrial Estate, Abercarn, Caerphilly when the incident happened on 11 April 2011. Mr Jones’ employer, Smurfit Kappa, was fined a total of £8,000 and ordered to pay £14,100 in fines by Caerphilly Magistrates in a prosecution brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) today (26 November). The court was told that the forklift truck was reversing around a storage area to drop off an empty pallet when it struck Mr Jones, who was carrying out routine work on stock in the area. Although the forklift was travelling at a slow speed, Mr Jones suffered a broken ankle and fractured heel and subsequently developed deep vein thrombosis. An investigation by the HSE revealed that the forklift was fitted with reversing alarms, but these were not audible over the noise in the production area. No other safety measures were used, such as mirrors or flashing lights on the vehicles. Although the company had a transport policy, they had not adequately assessed the risk to all pedestrians and there were inadequate measures in place to separate pedestrians from forklift vehicles in the production area. Despite the transport policy highlighting the need for other safety devices such as mirrors, these were not fitted to the vehicles. http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2012/rnn-w-smurfitkappa.htm?eban=rss-