Archive for the 'Lifting Accidents' Category

A manufacturer of industrial catering equipment, Lincat Ltd, has been fined £19,400 and ordered to pay substantial legal costs after being found in breach of health and safety regulations following an employee suffering an accident at work.

The employee, Rolf Cinavas, worked as an oven assembler and suffered a groin injury when he was required to move a pizza oven weighing 96kg without the use of any mechanical lifting gear.  He and his supervisor had to move 5 ovens from a waist high assembly bench and put them on pallets that were on the floor.  As a result of the accident he was unable to return to work for 9 weeks.

The company admitted being in breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 as they did not have a clear health and safety policy statement.  They were also in breach of the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992.

Published in Truckstop News - October 2008.

In this month’s issue Steven Hinchliffe of the specialist Personal Injury firm Hinchliffes Solicitors considers “LIFTING AND MANUAL HANDLING TASKS”.

Many truckers suffer with back pain caused by various factors, including the requirement to lift objects and perform general manual handling tasks.  The term “manual handling” is used to describe a wide variety of jobs, including lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling, carrying, moving and holding or restraining an object, animal or person.  It also covers activities that require the use of force, for example pulling a lever or operating power tools.

HSE records suggest that over 30% of all work accidents involve manual handling issues, with an estimated 300,000 people each year suffering the agonies of back pain.