After one of its drivers suffered a personal injury at work, one foam manufacturer has been sent to court, insider sources say.
The Health and Safety Executive recently revealed that the driver of a lorry suffered a personal injury claim in which he broke his back in the course of his duties at the Stoke on Trent factory for foam manufacturer Reticel.
Wolverhampton native Colin Ball suffered both several spinal fractures and a head injury during an accident where he was knocked backwards by a large pile of insulating material and then colliding with a trailer.
Health and Safety Executive inspector Lyn Mizen commented on Mr Ball’s injury claims, stating that if the foam manufacturing firm had simply implemented a sufficiently suitable and safe work system in regards of risk management of sacked warehouse materials, the incident could have been prevented very easily.
Instead, Ms Mizen found that Reticel was in breach of the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act. Ms Mizen specifically cited Section 3(1) of the regulatory code.
The incident, which occurred in October of 2009, has led to the foam manufacturing company to be assigned a fine of £6,238. Additionally, Reticel received further instructions to pay costs totaling £11,762 as well.
In related news, for the 2009-2010 season, employees in West Midlands workplaces suffered nearly 2400 major injuries.
Many industry experts have commented that companies and firms that neglect to properly institute workplace safety regulations due to being reticent in regards to the cost of such work programmes are shooting themselves in the foot; the costs of such preventative measures pale in comparison to the hefty fines and cost assessments that the Health and Safety Executive routinely assign to companies in the wake of an investigation following a personal injury at work of one of their employees.