West Yorkshire plant hire company has been fined £433,550

A West Yorkshire plant hire company has been fined £433,550 following the death of an employee. Whilst reversing a forklift onto a trailer to return it to a customer, following maintenance, the truck fell off the side of the trailer.  The employee was not wearing a seat belt, so was thrown from truck and trapped between its chassis and another trailer. On investigation HSE found that there was no system in place for monitoring and enforcing seatbelt use on site, so many of the company’s employees would not wear them when operating forklift trucks. HSE also found that the forklift had not been subject to a full safety inspection and that there were defects which should have been identified and rectified before it was operated.