Manufacturing company fined after employee suffered fatal injury

A manufacturing company has been fined after an employee was found fatally injured under the forks of a side-loader lift truck.

A Cutting Edge Trading Limited employee, Mitchell Poutney, was fatally injured at the company site on Station Road, Rowley Regis, West Midlands during a lifting operation, on 2 September 2019, Dudley Magistrates’ Court was told. The unsupported forks and carriage of a side-loader lift truck descended, crushing him whilst he was working underneath it.

The HSE’s investigation found the company had failed to provide a safe system of work for unloading palletised goods using the side-loader forklift truck.

Cutting Edge Trading Limited of Station Road Industrial Estate, Rowley Regis, West Midlands pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £18,000 and ordered to pay costs of £10,153.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE Principal Inspector Jenny Skeldon said: “This tragic incident could have easily been prevented if this employer had acted to identify and manage the risks involved and put a safe system of work.