Firm fined after man crushed to death by forklift

A company has been fined more than £440,000 after a man died as he was crushed by a faulty forklift that toppled off a trailer while he was driving it.

Chris Keegan was reversing the machine onto a trailer in November 2023 when it fell, throwing him from the seat and trapping him between the chassis of the forklift and a neighbouring trailer.

The 67-year-old, who worked at Hessle Fork Trucks in Castleford, died at the scene.

Hessle Plant Ltd, of Carrwood Road Industrial Estate in Glasshoughton, pleaded guilty to breaching the Health & Safety at Work Act and was fined £433,550 at Leeds Magistrates' Court on 26 November.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found the forklift had "several maintenance defects" and Mr Keegan had not been wearing a seat belt.

The court heard Mr Keegan was returning the forklift truck to a customer's site in Sheffield following repair work to its transmission shortly after 06:00 GMT on 20 November 2023 when the incident happened.

His wife and two of his stepdaughters arrived at the Castleford depot as the emergency services fought to save Mr Keegan's life but his injuries proved fatal.

The HSE investigation found the machine had not been subject to a full inspection to ensure it was safe to operate.

It also discovered that while Hessle Plant Ltd would undertake a full pre-delivery inspection on forklift trucks being delivered to new customers, at the time of the incident the company did not do this for machines being returned to existing customers.

Mr Keegan's wife Diane said: "Chris was a wonderful, kind and generous man, who would do anything he could for anyone.

"He especially did anything he could for me."

The HSE later found that many of the company's employees would rarely wear seat belts when operating forklift trucks, and there was no system in place for monitoring and enforcing seat belt use on site.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector David Beaton said: "This was a tragic and preventable death.

"Mr Keegan was placed at undue risk by operating a machine with underlying maintenance defects, which he would have been unaware of when attempting to reverse the forklift in the dark onto a trailer with an exposed edge.

"Had Mr Keegan been wearing the seat belt provided, the accident he suffered would likely not have proven fatal."

Hessle Plant Ltd was also ordered to pay £8,146.80 in costs and a £2,000 victim surcharge.

Mrs Keegan added: "My heart is broken and I will never get over losing my husband in such a horrific way and he never deserved to die in such tragic circumstances."

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