Elland firm fined £17,000 after man suffers serious injuries

May 30 2009 By Neil Atkinson

AN Elland firm has been ordered to pay more than £17,000 after a man suffered serious injuries as he was crushed beneath a 1.5-tonne reel of paper.

Now the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is reminding the print industry of the dangers of loading and unloading reels of paper from delivery vehicles.

Officials stressed the need to have a safe system of work in place that avoids dangerous and uncontrolled movement of heavy print reels.

The warning follows the prosecution of a print firm after a visiting driver suffered serious injuries in June, 2008.

He was struck by a moving reel of paper nearly a metre wide and weighing around 1.5 tonnes whilst helping to unload a delivery to the Elland-based company.

The driver was removing securing chocks to large paper reels to allow them to be rolled to the back of a trailer for unloading when a large reel at the back rolled towards the front of the trailer crushing the driver betweenagainst two other reels.

Waddington and Ledger Ltd, of Lowfields Way, Lowfields Business Park, Elland, was fined £14,000 and ordered to pay costs of £3,205.10 and a £15 victim surcharge at Halifax Magistrates Court yesterday.