Despite Your Best Intentions, Workplace Accidents Can Happen
A tragic incident that resulted in a life changing injury should encourage you to review your health and safety policy.
Health and safety in the workplace is incredibly important, but all too often it is overlooked. Many bosses are hesitant to dedicate their time and resources to introducing health and safety signage, especially if there has never been an accident in their workplace before. While you might be making lots of efforts to ensure that your workforce is able to go about their job safely, cutting corners when it comes to safety can have dire consequences. This is particularly true if you have people working in close proximity with vehicles – as a recent incident at a site in Crewe proved.
The Accident
This disastrous workplace accident occurred at the beginning of September 2015. Mark Johnson was working with a colleague to clear items from a building on a Morning Foods Limited site. Towards the end of the six-week job, Mr. Johnson was making some final checks when he was hit by a forklift truck. This trapped his right leg, which tragically had to be amputated after medical attempts to save it failed. In an instant, a man’s life and health were irreversible altered.
A Costly Legal Battle
As you’d expect after such a horrifying incident, a prosecution was swiftly bought by the Health and Safety Executive. Morning Foods Limited argued that they had taken all the necessary checks prior to the start of the clearance project, and that control measures and health and safety signs were all in place. However, it was found that there were additional control measures not in place that could have contributed to the accident. As a result, the company was fined £30,000 and had to pay prosecution costs of £35,000.
Don’t Rest On Your Laurels
It’s important to note that Morning Foods Limited had no previous health and safety failings. So if you’re a company owner who uses your great track record as an excuse not to invest in health and safety measures, you’ll see that’s no guarantee. It’s so important to read up on regulations regularly, as they are always changing and evolving. If you haven’t done so already, provide your staff with adequate training and carry out risk assessments to identify problem areas.
Show The Way With Signs
Investing in health and safety signs for your workplace is one of the easiest ways of making it safer. In a noisy work environment where verbal cues can’t always be recognised, a prominently displayed sign will encourage a worker to stop what they are doing and consider their next course of action. It’s important to display them so that any staff controlling vehicles will be able to see them too. Take the time to explain to your team what these signs mean, and ensure that they take a legally recognised course to fully understand the risks of not paying attention to them.
Don’t Cut Corners
What happened in Crewe was a tragic accident, and Morning Foods Limited have shown great remorse and have made changes to their health and safety strategy. The costs that they faced were not insignificant though, and paying out tens of thousands of pounds could financially cripple a small or new company. So to protect both your company and your workers, make sure that you put safety first.