Huge fine for Beeston firm after man was crushed

A Beeston company which manufactures wooden trusses has been fined £82,000 after a worker was crushed, suffering multiple fractures, including 14 broken ribs.

Luton Magistrates Court heard how a worker suffered multiple fractures after a fork lift truck reversed into a stack of roof trusses which fell onto him.

This led to the employee being pinned against his workbench which resulted in fractures to his kneecap and to 14 ribs.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the incident, which occurred on 1 March 2017, found that the company failed to manage health and safety in three separate areas.

The company also failed to identify safe methods of delivering work materials inside the production areas, they did not provide suitable training and they did not supervise workers to ensure they worked safely, the court heard.

Bartram Manufacturing Limited of High Road, Beeston, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

The company has been fined £82,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1,804.40 as well as a victim surcharge of £170.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Emma Page said: “Those in control of work have a responsibility to devise safe methods of working and to provide the necessary information, instruction and training to their workers in the safe system of working.

“If a safe system of work had been in place prior to the incident, the severe injuries sustained by the employee could have been prevented.”

The firm, based just off the A1, has been in the area since 1998 and supplies, designs and installs a whole range of timber products.