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The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has successfully prosecuted a Bolton firm, after a recycling plant worker was badly injured when a steel beam fell on him from a forklift truck.

The unnamed 52-year-old worker was standing next to the forklift at J Doyle Ltd, Gaskell Street, Bolton in Lancashire when a steel beam measuring six metres in length fell from the forks of the vehicle and landed on his leg.

The man sustained a fractured ankle and a deep cut to his shin – as well as bruising and swelling to his shin, ankle and foot.

The injured worker needed three months off work to recover and he still walks with a limp more than one year after the incident, which happened in July 2012.

The HSE investigation found that a co-worker of the injured man had been attempting to load a beam into a skip for delivery to a customer, but as he did so, the beam slid off the forks of the truck onto his colleague.

The HSE discovered this was a method of handling and loading steel beams frequently used at the company, but site managers had failed to plan the work properly.

On Monday (18/11/13) at Trafford Magistrates’ Court, J Doyle Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998. The company was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £1,500 in prosecution costs.

HSE inspector Emily Osborne said after the hearing:

“The firm should never have allowed a long steel beam – weighing over 100kg – to be lifted on a forklift truck in this dangerous way. The work was not planned and the risks ignored.

“The company has now stopped using a forklift to lift steel beams and instead uses a HIAB crane on the back of a flatbed truck to deliver steel beams to customers. If they had lifted the beam using this equipment at the time of the incident, then the employee’s injuries could have been avoided.

“The injuries suffered by J Doyle’s employee are still affecting him today – more than a year after the incident – and have caused him a considerable amount of pain.”

A spokesman for the company spoke to the website letsrecycle.com following the hearing and said the forklift truck driver involved in the incident was a fully trained member of staff and a very experienced slinger of beams.

The spokesman for J Doyle Ltd added:

“The company deeply regrets the incident that happened in July 2012. It is an activity that we only did two or three times a year – and while we had a risk assessment and safe systems in work in place for fork lift truck operations, it was found not to be specific enough for this particular activity.”

Recycling is among the top three most risky industries for workers – and forklift trucks among the most dangerous equipment, as they can be unstable on uneven flooring, as well as potentially tipping over or discharging loads if overloaded, or if a load is not balanced and secured.

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