An engineering services company has been fined for safety failings after a worker was injured when he fell from the trailer bed of a lorry at its premises in Aberdeen.
Kenneth Morrison was securing a load at the TDC (Aberdeen) Ltd site on March 12, 2012 when he lost his footing stepping down from the vehicle.
Yesterday Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard that Mr Morrison, a storeman and driver for the firm, had secured a load in the back of the lorry using ratchet straps.
He took hold of a strap to steady himself as he stepped backwards over the side boards of the lorry but it came loose and he fell backwards onto the ground below.
Mr Morrison suffered minor head injuries and was taken to hospital but was discharged the same day. He returned to work a few days later and has made a full recovery.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) revealed TDC (Aberdeen) Ltd had failed to identify the risk of falls from vehicles and had not considered work on the lorries in that context to be a hazard.
As a result, no control measures had been put in place to prevent such accidents.
Employees had also not been given any training, information or instruction in how to carry out the task safely and a lack of supervision meant they had each devised their own way of working.
Since the incident the company has carried out a risk assessment and introduced a number of simple safeguards.
TDC (Aberdeen) Ltd, of Bankhead Industrial Estate, Bucksburn, Aberdeen, was fined £5,000 after i breaching Section 2 of the Health and Safety at work Act 1974.
Following the case, HSE Inspector Sarah Forbes, said: “Thankfully Mr Morrison’s injuries were not as serious as they could have been – it could easily have been worse.
“But the fact remains that this incident could have been avoided in the first place and was the result of TDC (Aberdeen) Ltd failing to make sure its employees were adequately protected from the risks associated with their jobs.”