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Worker sustains knee injury in cage fall accident at work

• Hellen
  Clearwater Solicitors...

A worker suffered a knee injury in an accident at work, Herford Magistrates' Court heard on January 8th.
The incident took place on July 31st 2012, when an unnamed 22-year-old man from Walthamstow was cleaning high-level lighting at Kemlows Die Casting Products.

He was in the company's Charlton Mead Lane premises in Hoddeson when he was asked to clean the lights. The workplace safety measures the company employed to conduct this task were inadequate - the company used a goods stillage and a forklift truck to provide employees with access to light fittings, despite the fact that the goods stillage was not designed for the transportation of people. Furthermore, a Health and safety Executive (HSE) investigation into the accident at work revealed the cage had not been secured to the forklift.

After working for two or three hours, the stillage the worker was standing in became unstable. This caused it to fall around three feet, landing on the concrete floor below. The worker, who was still in it, injured their knee so badly in this accident at work that they were unable to return to work for another three months.

Hertford Magistrates' Court heard that workers had been working at heights above three metres with a goods stillage and a forklift truck for many years, and had been using a similarly-hazardous system of work for other maintenance tasks.
Kemlows Die Casting Products, which is based on Hertford's Ware Road, received a fine of £6,000 with an additional £3,500 in coasts after admitting single breaches of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 and the Work at Height Regulations 2005.

Fall from height accident at work compensation claims

HSE Inspector Peter Burns remarked that the system of work the company was using for the task was "totally inappropriate", with these workplace safety failings putting a number of employees in danger of death or serious injuries over several years.
He said the company had plenty of time to hire mobile elevated work platforms or other safe equipment for working at height, arguing that it is inexcusable for companies to fail to use the right working systems and workplace safety equipment for particular jobs.

Accidents at work involving falls from height can be some of the most significant incidents companies can see - falls from height have remained the leading cause of fatal workplace accidents for many years. The workplace safety systems businesses can use to control the hazards work at height creates are simple and cost-effective, but all too often, businesses fail to use these safety measures, with catastrophic results.

The unnamed employee at Kemlows Die Casting Products was fortunate to have only injured their leg in the accident at work - personal injury solicitors see some serious and devastating injuries caused by falls from elevated platforms. Businesses have a duty of care towards the health and safety of their employees, and it is vital for businesses to take this duty of care seriously.

Hellen works alongside unions and health and safety representatives to drive down the number of back injuries compensation claims and accidents at work compensation. She is also a keen student of UK employment law and keeps an eye on any UK law reviews so she can keep on top of any movements in the area.

Geek, H. 2014, Worker sustains knee injury in cage fall accident at work.

Tags: Accident At Work, Personal Injury,