Company Fined Nearly £50,000 After Forklift Truck Accident Caused Fatal injury

Wednesday, 20 July 2016 07:00

A Manchester company has been fined almost £50,000 following an accident at their warehouse, which lead to the death of an employee.

Stone Superstore Ltd, Matthew Street, Gorton was fined £40,000 and ordered to pay Manchester City Council costs of £9,221 at Manchester Crown Court. The company was convicted for offences under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

The conviction followed an accident at the Matthew Street warehouse on 29 October 2010 that resulted in the death of an employee - Mr Soran Aziz, 27 - after a crate containing approximately one tonne of stone floor tiles spilled from a forklift truck.

Mr Aziz suffered serious head injuries and died in hospital two days after the incident.

Environmental Health Officers visited the site and found that the forklift truck driver who had spilled the tiles had not received formal training – despite it being required by the Health and Safety Executive’s code of practice.

The court also heard that although two forklift trucks were being used daily at the warehouse none of the company’s employees had received any formal training.

Stone Superstore pleaded guilty to two counts, one of a failure to adequately train, supervise and instruct staff and a further charge of a failure to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment. The fine of £40,000 was awarded for the first count with no separate penalty being given for the second count.

Councillor Nigel Murphy, Manchester City Council executive member for neighbourhoods (pictured), said: “This heartbreaking case saw a young man lose his life and our thoughts are with his family and loved ones.

“Health and safety regulations are often sneered at but they exist for good reason – to prevent avoidable tragedies like this one.

“This case should serve as a warning, companies that do not adhere to health and safety regulations are needlessly putting people at risk and we will vigorously pursue them for their dangerous behaviour.”

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