News Item: Lighting Manufacturing Company Fined after Fatal Incident Involving Forklift Truck

A lighting manufacturer in Blackburn has been fined after an employee was fatally injured when the forklift truck he was driving struck an overhead steel beam.

Preston Magistrates' Court

Preston Magistrates' Court heard that the employee was operating a forklift truck to move pallets at the company premises in Witton Business Park, Blackburn, when the mast of the forklift truck hit a low overhead structural beam, which caused the truck to overturn. The employee was trapped underneath the roll cage and received fatal crush injuries.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the traffic routes on site required forklift trucks to travel under a number of overhead structural beams which only had a small clearance gap between the mast of the trucks at their lowest setting and the beams. There were no hazard markings to highlight these overhead obstructions.

MK Illumination (UK) Ltd of Witton Business Park, Preston Old Road, Blackburn, Lancashire, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £53,360 and ordered to pay costs of £7,880.