UK Mail fined after forklifts hit two workers

摘要

A postal service company has been fined ￡400,000, with costs of ￡9,356, after forklift trucks injured two employees in separate incidents. The incidents occurred at UK Mail's Ventura Park premises in Radlett, Hertfordshire on: 1.20 October 2016, when a forklift struck an operations administrator who was sorting returned parcels. The administrator sustained a fractured skull and bleeding between the skull and brain; and 2.20 March 2017, when a forklift hit a warehouse operative who was inspecting a parcel. She suffered nerve damage to her left arm and superficial leg and hip injuries. The HSE investigated both incidents and found that UK Mail failed to manage workplace transport in the warehouse area and that the systems of work in place were not safe. UK Mail did not ensure effective segregation of pedestrians and vehicles; there were, for example, no pedestrian walkways for employees to navigate across the warehouse1. Following the first incident, the HSE served an improvement notice on UK Mail on 14 December 2016 because it had not adequately assessed the risks or taken sufficient measures to prevent or control the risks of serious injury to pedestrians from moving vehicles in the warehouse.