A building firm and its director have been fined a total of £60,000 after a court heard that an employee was crushed to death when he was hit by a fork lift truck that was being driven by an untrained driver.

The labourer was operating a cement mixer on a housing development site when the accident happened. A fork lift accidentally struck the worker, who suffered severe crushing injuries and was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.

The driver of the lift truck did not see the labourer, and believed that he was standing a safe distance away from the vehicle when the incident happened. The company and its director failed to ensure the lift truck was being operated by a suitably trained driver.

In the week before the accident, the director had instructed an untrained worker to drive the lift truck for a day when its regular driver had failed to come into work. When a lift truck driver was required for the same reason on the day of the accident - the company's foreman on the site instructed the untrained employee to drive the lift truck again.

The director should have ensured the employee driving the lift truck had a training certificate permitting him to drive fork lift trucks. If the truck had been driven by a trained driver, the accident could have been avoided, as the driver would have been aware of the need to check that there were no personnel in the vicinity of the vehicle when operating it.

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