A SHOPPING trolley manufacturer has been fined after two men fell around three metres in Coventry when a metal cage they were dismantling collapsed beneath them.
On May 12, 2018, two employees at Wanzl Ltd were taking apart a large metal cage as part of improvement works at Prologis Park in the city.
Wanzl Ltd decided to hire scaffold towers and scaffolding boards to carry out the work following a visual inspection.
Once the scaffold towers had been erected the two employees accessed the cages roof.
They began to remove panels one at a time dropping them to the floor inside the walls of the cage.
When several of these panels had been removed the employees noticed the cage shook in response to movement, and the roof suddenly gave way and they both fell to the floor below.
One of the men, Michael Barton, aged 52 at the time and from Walsall, suffered a broken pelvis and injured his hip and arm, and he was off work for 12 months following the incident.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the work had not been properly planned, appropriately supervised, or carried out safely.
The HSE also deemed no consideration was given to whether dismantling the structure could be carried out without working at height or if the work was within the capabilities of the firm’s employees.
In addition, they found none of the employees involved were trained in assembling scaffolding towers, and the injured man was not trained in working at height.
An investigation by Coventry City Council came to the same conclusion before primacy was handed to HSE.
At Birmingham Magistrates’ Court on November 10, Wanzl Limited of Heathcote Lane, Warwick pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4 (1) of the Working at Height Regulations 2005.
The firm was fined £320,000 and ordered to pay costs of £4016.35.
HSE inspector Charlotte Cunniffe said: “Working at height remains one of the leading causes of death and serious injury to workers in the United Kingdom.
“All work at height, including one-off activities which fall outside of a company’s usual business should be properly planned and appropriate work equipment selected.
“Employers must assess the competency of their employees when asking them to carry out non-routine work.”
