Wavertree building firm fined over forklift driver's death - Industry Dynamics

A building supplies firm has admitted breaching health and safety standards over the death of an employee who was crushed by a forklift truck.

Robert Ambrose, 62, died a few days after being trapped under the truck he was driving at Chestnut Building Centres in Wavertree in 2018.

Wirral Magistrates' Court heard the firm's "basic failure to manage risk" led to the "avoidable" incident.

The company was ordered to pay more than £160,000 in fines and costs.

Liverpool City Council said an investigation was launched into the the Picton Road-based firm after the death of Mr Ambrose, who had worked at the company for more than 40 years.

He was seriously injured on 15 November 2018 when the load he was transporting was struck by a delivery lorry, causing his forklift truck to topple over and trap him underneath.

Mr Ambrose died in hospital a few days later.

'Dreadfully sad'

A council spokeswoman said environmental health officers found a series of safety failings, including forklift truck operators "routinely" not wearing seatbelts or restraints, a "lack of proper management of delivery vehicles" and the "unsafe movement and poor separation" of vehicles and pedestrians at the site.

Fining the firm £94,500 and ordering it to pay costs of £66,025, District Judge James Hatton said the crash that caused Mr Ambrose's death had been "avoidable and shouldn't have happened".

"There was a basic failure to manage risk," he said.

He added that he had imposed the fine to ensure "casualness doesn't creep in through the back door".

Liverpool City Council's cabinet member for neighbourhoods, Abdul Qadir, said it was the "responsibility of all businesses to ensure they are doing everything in their power to ensure health and safety regulations are adhered to at all times".

"This is a dreadfully sad case," he said.

"Quite simply, this should never have happened. Nobody should ever go to work and not go home."