A yacht manufacturer has been sentenced after an employee was injured when his forklift truck overturned.
Plymouth Magistrates’ Court heard how on 3 August 2018, a 57-year-old employee of Princess Yachts Limited was injured whilst assisting the unloading of a delivery at the company’s Langage site. The victim was using a forklift truck in tandem with another driver to lift a large load from a flatbed lorry. Part of the load was lifted to allow the lorry to move forward, but in doing so another part of the load struck the mast of his forklift causing it to overturn. He sustained ligament and muscle damage to his ankle as a result of the incident and was off work for five months.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the lifting work had not been properly planned or risk assessed. The employees were not aware of relevant procedures and there were safer alternate methods available which had not been considered.