A 50-year-old man has detailed the impact a horrific incident at work has had on his life after he sustained life-changing injuries.
During a night shift, a steel pallet was being removed from a reinforced concrete cast when it fell onto the father-of-two, who had only recently been employed by the firm as a supervisor.
The 800kg load crushed his legs and he had his right lower leg amputated with two toes on his left foot also being removed. He now has a prosthetic leg.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found the pallet had not been secured onto the lifting chains of the overhead crane before being removed from the concrete cast. This meant the pallet was not supported whilst being moved. The investigation also found the company failed to consistently implement a system of work to ensure the pallet could be removed safely. He and other members on his team had not received any information or instructions on how to remove the pallet safely.
The company pleaded guilty to breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act. The company was fined £60,000 and ordered to pay £5,406 in prosecution costs at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court.
The man said the incident put a massive strain on him and his family, and he still experiences flashbacks. ‘Adapting mentally has been hard. Everyone always says you have handled it really well but they don’t see you on a day-to-day basis, just getting out of bed, putting your leg on and off and getting in and out of the shower and toilet. ‘They just see me having a laugh and a joke about it, they don’t see everything else. I try to keep positive but dealing with it mentally has been hard.’
While the incident took a toll on his mental and physical health, his relationship with his eldest son was also affected. The 17-year-old took care of his dad during his recovery as he was bed-bound for months after.
This led to another huge impact, with him unable to be with his dad as he passed away just three months after the incident. ‘The hardest part for me was my dad had only had six months to live and in the last three months, I only got to see him twice before he died,’. ‘That was harder for me than losing my leg. I didn’t get to say goodbye to him, which still hurts now.’
This incident could so easily have been avoided with the correct instruction and implementation of an agreed safe working procedure, said HSE inspector Jane Fox. The company left its employees to work out their own methods of completing the pallet removal task, instead of providing them with suitable training and equipment so it could be done safely every time.
SOURCE – IOSH
