Forklift accidents, prosecutions and fines 2017
The really good news is that fatal accidents involving forklift trucks in the United Kingdom have decreased over time. In the year to April 2013 there were only six fatal accidents which, although too many, is much lower than the 30 annual deaths that were reported annually when I started in the forklift industry in 1970.
Some of the more recent forklift accidents that have come to my attention are listed below and I will update these on an ongoing basis. Older forklift accidents can be viewed via the links on the left.
December 19th 2017. An employee’s foot was crushed by a falling metal grid weighing a tonne and he suffered a broken foot which led to the amputation of three toes. More
December 12th 2017. A company has been ordered to pay more than £300,000 after a woman had her leg crushed by a forklift truck at a warehouse in Stone, Staffordshire. More
November 24th 2017. A company has been fined £1.2 million after a lorry driver was killed when an overladen forklift truck shed it's load onto him. More
November 14th 2017. A Banbury based company has been fined £80k after a 64-year old worker who was struck by a falling pallet had to have part of his leg amputated. More
October 25th 2017. Company fined half a million and director given suspended jail sentence after a telehandler fatality. More
September 19th 2017. A Grantham company has been fined £300,000 with £25,000 towards prosecution costs. at Lincoln Crown Court for a breach of health and safety regulations following the death of a forklift truck driver. More
September 6th 2017. Liverpool company fined £80,000 plus costs after an employee suffered a fractured pelvis when he was in collision with a clamp truck on 13th April 2015. More
August 29th 2107. Aldi Stored Ltd have been fined £1 million, with further costs of £70,000 after a delivery driver received severe injuries to his foot whilst operating an electric pallet truck. More
August 7th 2017. Encirc Ltd, a producer of glass bottles for the drinks industry, has been fined half a million after an employee was struck by a fork lift truck in Chester. More
July 26th 2017. I normally only put forklift accidents in the UK on here but this one is so tragic I decided to include it. This happened in New Zealand just over a week ago. More
June 30th 2017. A construction company and its groundwork contractor have been fined after a worker was killed by a reversing vehicle. More
May 22nd 2017. With deaths and injuries as a result of forklift accidents still all too common, the Fork Lift Truck Association has asked motivational speaker, Lisa Ramos, who opened the 2016 safety conference, to share her story. More
April 24th 2017. An engineering company in Knowsley has been fined after an employee was badly injured when he was struck by a metal structure during a lifting process. More
April 4th 2017. A Wolverhampton firm where a worker was crushed to death by a forklift truck has been fined just one pound because the firm has since gone into liquidation. More
Mar 24th 2017. A producer of concrete blocks has been fined £300,000 after an employee had to have a leg amputated. More
Mar 8th 2017. The cause of death of a 60-year woman who was killed by a lorry load has been revealed to be due to poor loading and a lack of knowledge of correct loading. More
Mar 2nd 2017. The two owners of Kidderminster based fencing firm Hoo Farm Fencing have been given suspended sentences after a worker was hit by timber posts and frames which fell from a fork lift truck. More
Feb 1st 2017. Two companies from Carmarthenshire and West Midlands have been fined after a worker was killed when he fell from a telehandler. More
Jan 31st 2017. A mechanic was crushed to death by a forklift he was repairing when the machine accidentally slipped into gear while the handbrake was off. More
Jan 25th 2017. A construction firm has been fined after an employee of a sub-contractor suffered a head laceration and bruised ribs after the man riding basket he was in crashed five metres to the ground when it slid off the forks of a telehandler. More
Jan 20th 2017. A construction company has been fined after a 58 year old worker suffered serious injuries when the fork lift truck and attached man-riding cage that he was working from overturned and he fell to the floor. More
Jan 19th 2017. A Logistics company based in Staffordshire has been fined after two employees were injured in two days. More