A company is south Staffordshire has been prosecuted after a 17-year-old worker’s leg was shattered after an accident in a ‘badly maintained’ yard.

Local newspaper the Express & Star reports that the teenage worker was pushing a 700kg load up a slope in the yard, using a trolley that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found was not fit for the job.

The wheel of the trolley went into a pothole and the trolley overturned, unloading a dozen steel rods onto the worker, who had no opportunity to get out of the way in time. The HSE discovered that two similar accidents had previously occurred at the yard, but had not been reported to the HSE because no one had been injured.

The employee suffered ‘terrible injuries’ to his right leg in the incident – which occurred in November 2009 – and is still unable to move properly.

On Friday (07/05/10) at Wolverhampton Magistrates’ Court, Dranson Ltd – of Station Road in Codsall, Wolverhampton – admitted liability for failing to protect an employee and was fined £8,000 with £3,600 costs.

Speaking on behalf of the company, Amanda Tomkins said that the managing director Kevan Morris had ‘never attempted to pass the blame on to anybody else’. She added that there had been long-term problems, ‘but this was an isolated accident’.

The company told the court that a new type of trolley was being used for such jobs and training and conditions at the company had also been improved.

District Judge Michael Wheeler said at the hearing:

‘This was a very regrettable and serious incident that may well turn out to be life changing for the victim – it was a wholly foreseeable and avoidable incident.’

Prosecuting on behalf of the HSE, Amay Kalay said the present owner of the company – which employs 35 people – had done nothing before the incident ‘to check the risks or train staff how to move heavy loads, despite being in control for almost four years’.

© 5r1 Limited 2010