Swansea Crown Court
A FIRM has been fined £120,000 after a Turkish driver was crushed to death under two crates weighing almost 500kg.
Turkish national Ahmet Yakar, 52, was killed after two unstable crates fell as he used a fork lift truck to move them at Morganite Electrical Carbon Ltd in Swansea.
Swansea Crown Court was told that Mr Yakar, who did not speak English, was reluctant to open up the sides of his curtain-sided lorry as he arrived to make a delivery at Morganite on July 19, 2011.
Instead, he was supplied with a hand operated pallet truck to move the boxes to the back of the lorry, where they were transferred to a forklift truck.
Health and Safety Executive officials said during the operation, the boxes – at the time stacked four high – became unstable and the top box toppled and knocked him off the lorry.
He could not be saved despite efforts by the emergency services and a worker at the site, Gerald Price.
The investigation found that Morganite “did not have safe working procedures for receiving and unloading delivery vehicles and did not carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment for unloading at the site”.
The firm also had no set policy for dealing with drivers who did not speak English.
Speaking after the hearing, inspector Steve Lewis said: “This tragic incident could have been avoided had Morganite carried out a proper risk assessment of the unloading procedure and insisted Mr Yakar open the curtain sides to the truck instead of unloading from the rear of the vehicle.
“The company failed to provide their employees with suitable instructions and safe systems of work for accepting lorry deliveries to site. They should have taken responsibility for the driver’s safety and the delivery and unloading operation.
“Mr Yakar and his family in Turkey have paid the ultimate price for Morganite’s carelessness in this regard.”