Automotive manufacturer fined £3,200 following serious workplace incident

Published: HSE, May 2009

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is warning employers not to neglect their duties after a worker suffered multiple fractures at a Sunderland automotive components manufacturer.

On the 28th May, the Company was fined a total of £3,200 and ordered to pay £2,636 in costs after pleading guilty to one breach of health and safety legislation at Sunderland Magistrates Court. It was also ordered to pay a £15 victim surcharge.

The incident took place at the company’s premises in Sunderland on 16 August 2008.  An employee became trapped after a tooling rack collapsed while he was using an overhead crane to unload tools from the rack, he suffered multiple fractures, cuts and bruises.

HSE Inspector Fiona MacNeill, said: “This person was lucky not to have been killed by the racking which overturned.

"Employers should learn a lesson from this incident - that the safety of work equipment cannot be taken for granted. Safety does not manage itself. Risk management is a proactive process and employers should assess and prioritise the more serious risks in their premises."

Notes to editors:

In relation to the incident, the Automotive manufacturer was charged with one breach of health and safety legislation:

Regulation 20 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 in that they failed to ensure that the single bay of tool racking used for the storage of service tools adjacent to machine 8 was stabilised by clamping or otherwise where necessary for the purposes of safety.

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