The supervisor of a firm's fork lift truck drivers was fined £300 after he suffered serious leg injuries when he drove a fork lift truck despite knowing that its brakes were faulty.

The 36 year old was employed by the company as a fork lift truck driver, and as a supervisor of other fork lift truck drivers at the site. On the day of the accident, another driver discovered that the brakes on his lift truck were not working properly. He immediately stopped using the truck and passed this information onto the supervisor, who had himself used the truck the previous day and had noticed the problem with the brakes.

Despite his colleague's concerns and his own discovery of a problem with the lift truck's brakes, the supervisor decided to use the truck.

He drove the truck down a steep slope towards the factory building. The lift truck's engine stalled and its brakes failed completely. This caused him to lose control of the lift truck, which overturned, trapping him underneath it.

The lift truck should not have been used until the brakes had been fixed and were in proper working order. He was fined £300 under Section 7 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 for failing to take reasonable care for the health and safety of himself and others.

As an experienced operator and supervisor of five other drivers he should have known that unless the brakes of a fork-lift truck are one hundred percent you don't use it, you park it up.

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