The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has prosecuted major food retailer EAT after an employee was seriously injured and knocked unconscious in the company’s warehouse.

In January 2007, warehouse worker Chirag Ray, 31, of Wembley in Brent was preparing pallets for deliveries to the company’s retail shops. He was working in a raised man-riding cage, which was not properly fixed to a forklift truck. While raised to height of approximately 4.6 metres, the cage slipped off the forks and fell. Mr Ray suffered swelling to the brain, a broken hand, broken elbow, cracked ribs and dislocated knee. He was unconscious in hospital for two days after the accident.

On Thursday (26/11/09) at City of London Magistrates’ Court, EAT Ltd of Unit 32-34, Fourth Way, Wembley Industrial Estate in Brent pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. The company was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,500.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Ravi Govin-Pillay said that falls from height were the ‘biggest single cause’ of fatal injuries at work. 

‘Each year, there are around 60 people killed and 4,000 major injuries caused by falls in the workplace,’ said Mr Govin-Pillay.

The HSE investigation found that EAT did not have adequate measures in place to control the risks of working at height – and the cage used was not suitable for order picking. The work was being carried in an unsafe manner, said the HSE – and evidence also showed that a colleague working on the ground narrowly escaped injury as the cage fell.

Mr Govin-Pillay added:

‘The risk of harm from falling from the working platform was clearly foreseeable. Had this work been properly planned or supervised, then this needless incident would have easily been prevented.

‘It is important for companies to have the necessary planning and supervision in place to control the risks of injury from working at height. There is good HSE guidance available in publications and on the HSE website about the hazards of working at height and the measures that can be taken to reduce the risks. There is no excuse for putting workers at risk.’

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