At Northampton Crown Court, Great Bear Distribution Limited was sentenced for 1 offence underneath the Safety and health in the office etc. Act 1974 pertaining to a fatal accident with their Desborough Warehouse.
On 14 January 2016, Mr Andrej Grzeszczak lost his life once the vehicle he was operating was struck by another vehicle. Mr Grzeszczak was working at height at the moment with the exceptional vehicle toppled anf the husband died for the scene.
Great Bear Distribution Limited was arraigned with an offence as opposed to S.33(1)(a) of the Health & Safety at the workplace etc. Act 1974 of unable to ensure, with regards to was reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at your workplace of employees. A guilty plea was entered in the earliest possible opportunity additionally, the matter was dedicated to Northampton Crown Court for sentence from the Magistrates Court.
The court identified that there was not permit to your workplace system working without electronic or physical device installed to circumvent two vehicles entering the same aisle. The vehicles wasn’t fitted with sensors to detect other manual handling equipment within the aisle.
Moreover, the driving position within the vehicle operator was in a way that he/she must turn their scalp 180 degrees to find a view in the back of the auto whilst reversing into position.
The court identified that extraordinary Bear Distribution Limited was struggling to show any training package for operations controllers which was widely known as a major fault which has been directly causative from the failure to be sure the safety of Mr Grzeszczak, as controllers were found to be ignoring a prompt on the pc system employed to control vehicles which showed whenever a vehicle was already within the aisle. The prompt should have been acknowledged, or enhanced to circumvent two vehicles from entering the identical aisle.
Since the accident Great Bear Distribution Limited have made significant improvements for their systems including:
a) Investing in a brand new type of the operations software;
b) CCTV cameras increased to 95 from the depot;
c) Review of training;
d) Look at lighting;
e) Vehicles and operators made more visible.
Great Bear Distribution Limited were fined £323,300. Costs of £30,000 were awarded plus the victim surcharge of £120 applied.
Shirley Plenderleith, Kettering Borough Council’s Head of Public Services, said: “Mr Grzeszczak lost his life unnecessarily during this accident. While Great Bear Distribution Limited had numerous safe practices policies and operations set up, they’d failed to recognise the operations controllers were trained by referral marketing and not by using a structured and supervised training process.
“Therefore a culture have been introduced which allowed an essential safety and health control for being ignored. By ignoring a particular warning to the operations system that Mr Grzesczak’s vehicle was already during the aisle, another vehicle was mailed in along with the collision occurred, producing Mr Grzeszczak falling in his vehicle approximately 14 metres to the ground and sustaining fatal injuries. This sad reduction in an existence is actually a clear demonstration to everyone companies that proper structured training off employees crucial for a safe, secure working environment for staff among others.”
