A Lincolnshire based manufacturing company that specialises in lifting and handling equipment has been fined after an employee died after falling with a work platform onto the M25 motorway.
Reading Crown Court heard that Rick Jeager-Fozard, an employee of Kimberly Access Limited, was carrying out a routine pre-delivery inspection on a mobile elevating work platform (MEWP) on 5 June 2013.
The MEWP extended to an unsafe angle and resulted in the MEWP falling onto the M25 motorway. Mr Jeager-Fozard was working in the platform of the MEWP, falling with the device.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the device had become unsafe because a miscalibration of its secondary boom angle sensor, which started to extend even though the boom had not been raised to the necessary angle. It was found that the MEWPs secondary boom had raised to an angle around 6-degrees lower that required, the boom then extended beyond its safe working limit and tipped over.