Delivery driver breaks back in work-related injury accident
11/11/2010

A delivery driver, whose back was broken in a work-related injury accident, was the centre of a Health and Safety at Work case at Newcastle-under-Lyme where magistrates fined the owners of the warehouse £6,238 with £11,762 costs.

The court was told that the lorry driver from Codsall, near Wolverhampton, was delivering a consignment of insulation board to foam manufacturer Recticel at Meir Park, Stoke-on-Trent, when another stack fell on top of him.

He suffered multiple spinal fractures and a serious head injury. Magistrates heard that he would need long-term treatment for the potentially-disabling industrial accident which occurred in October 2009.

Commenting after the hearing, HSE inspector Lyn Mizen said the incident could easily have been prevented and that the company should have implemented a suitable and safe system to manage risks posed by stacked materials in the warehouse.

She added, "Employers have just as great a duty of care to visiting employees as they do to their own. Every year in the delivery and haulage industry there are a number of workplace fatalities and serious injuries as a result of falling objects."

Now that the court case has decided liability, the victim of the work-related injury may be able to pursue a compensation claim for his suffering and loss of earnings.