A farm owner has been fined recently, following the death of a roofer working on his farm in Cheshire, writes Keith Hatch.
Mark Young, a roofer, fell to his death from a forklift truck whilst attempting repairs to a roof panel on a packing shed at Moss Hill Farm, in Tarporley in December 2021.
Following his death the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) carried out an investigation which resulted in farm owner Denis Thornhill, and his company D.S. Thornhill (Rushton) Limited, being fined £16,000. They had earlier last year been found guilty of breaching health and safety legislation following a six-week trial at Chester Crown Court.
At the trial, the court was told that Young had been asked to make repairs to a roof panel and fix a blocked gutter on the shed. As he walked across the roof, he damaged a second roof panel, so a replacement was purchased to carry out an additional repair.
When he returned with his son three days later to complete the work, he asked to be raised up to do it. Thornhill arrived with a forklift truck
that had a potato box balanced on its forks.
The HSE said that, “Young was lifted up inside the potato box to a height of around 16 feet, while his son, who was on the roof, attempted to reposition the panel from above. As Young moved to one side of the potato box, it caused it to overbalance, and he fell to the floor and sustained fatal head injuries.”
A joint investigation by Cheshire Constabulary and the HSE found that on the day of the accident there was no safe system of work implemented for working at height and unsuitable work equipment was used.
The potato box was not secured, the forklift truck had not been examined and was unsuitable for lifting people, and Thornhill was not formally trained in operating the forklift truck.
HSE Inspector Ian Betley said after the hearing, “This was a tragic incident that could so easily have been avoided.
“The forklift truck and potato box were the wrong pieces of equipment for the job and never a suitable platform for working at height. The
25 uniteLANDWORKER Winter 2024 Forklift – owned by D.S. Thornhill (Rushton) Ltd
work should instead have been carried out using a tower scaffold, scissor lift, or a cherry picker.
“In bringing the forklift truck and potato box and using it to lift Mark at height, the company was in control of the work but had failed to implement proper planning and safe execution of it.
“All companies have a legal duty to ensure the safety of workers they employ or who carry out work for them. If that had happened in this case, then Mark’s life wouldn’t have been lost.”
Alamy
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