A farmer from Cheshire has been fined £16,000 after a roofer fell to his death from a forklift truck on his premises in Tarporley.
64-year-old roofer, Mark Young met an untimely end when he fell from a roof of a packing shed at Moss Hall Farm while repairing its roof on February 1, 2021.
Denis Thornhill and his company, D.S. Thornhill (Rushton) Limited were sentenced and fined at Chester Crown Court last week on October 11, 2024 after he was found guilty of breaching health and safety legislation following a six-week trial which took place earlier this year in the same court.
The 78-year-old farmer was cleared of gross negligence manslaughter during the trial, but was found guilty of breaching Section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
During the trial, the court was told that the victim had been asked to repair a roof panel and unclog a blocked gutter, however, as he was walking across the building on January 29, 2021, a second roof panel was damaged so a second panel had to be purchased as a replacement.
Mark returned with his son three days later to complete the work on the roof where he asked Thornhill to assist them with his forklift to reach the roof.
The forklift had a potato box balanced on its fork, which Mark stepped into before being raised to a height of around 16ft, while his son, who was on the roof, attempted to reposition the panel from above.
Forklift
Mark fell to the ground when the box became unbalanced after he moved to one side of it, whereby he subsequently acquired life threatening head injuries and was later pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics, who were unable to revive him.
HSE inspector, Ian Betley spoke after the hearing about the victim’s death: “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 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.”
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Cheshire Constabulary undertook a joint investigation after Mr. Youngs death was confirmed where they discovered a lack of health and safety considerations were implemented for work at heights and that inappropriate equipment was used in the process.
They found that the the potato box did not have the required safety features for a non-integrated work platform and had not been secured in a way to prevent it overbalancing on the day of the accident, making it unsuitable for lifting people at height.
Additionally, the forklift truck had not been subjected to a thorough examination at the required frequency and Thornhill had no formal training in forklift truck operating.
