Volvo fined ￡900,000 after stepladderfall

摘要

A UK division of the Swedish vehicle manufacturer Volvo has been fined ￡900,000 after a repair technician fell from a damaged stepladder that had not been regularly inspected and was not owned by the company. The fine represents 7.4% of the company's most recent pre-tax profits. The employee sustained serious head injuries in the fall on 17 September 2015 at Volvo Group UK's Enfield depot, from where it services and repairs heavy goods and large passenger vehicles. A service on a logistics firm's truck had identified that an access rope - which runs along the length of the truck's body and helps users access the vehicle's flatbed - needed replacing. The technician was working on this when his colleagues heard a loud crash around 11am and found him unconscious, lying face down on the ground. The stepladder was by his feet. He was put in a medically induced coma for two weeks to manage swelling on his brain but he still suffers from complications and has been unable to return to work.