Company fined after wheel of industrial vehicle falls onto worker’s feet

8 Jun 2017 11:21 AM

A company has been fined after the wheel of a JCB digger fell onto one of its workers.

The man was working for Holt JCB Limited at a site on Port Talbot, on 8 April 2016.

Swansea Magistrates Court heard how the apprentice was tasked with changing air filled wheels with foam wheels on a machine intended to be used on a recycling site. The wheel weighed more than 400kg. The incident left the man with broken bones in both feet.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the company did not have any handling equipment for wheels, had not assessed the operation and had not trained workers on how to handle wheels.

Holt JCB Limited of Third Way, Bristol pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4(1) of the Manual Handling Regulations 1992. The company has today been fined £67,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2929.70.

Speaking after the hearing HSE inspector Steve Richardson said: “This incident could have been prevented if the company had used a mechanical wheel handler costing less than £700. Measures such as this would have been apparent had the task been properly assessed.”

Notes to Editors:

1. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice, promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice, and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk
2. More about the legislation referred to in this case can be found at: www.legislation.gov.uk/ 
3. HSE news releases are available at http://press.hse.gov.uk