He Went to Work and Came Home Without His Left Foot

14 December 2023. A man is standing inside an HGV trailer while a colleague loads one-tonne concrete blocks with a forklift. The driver nudges a stack. The blocks go over. His left foot and lower leg are amputated. His right leg is seriously injured.

Then his employer sacks him.

This week at Kidderminster Magistrates Court, BA Mobile Fleet Services Limited of Redditch pleaded guilty and were fined £30,000 plus costs.

The HSE investigation found the forklift driver had no training. Not a lapsed certificate. Not a course he had not finished. No training. None. He had never been authorised to operate that machine. And no one had put anything in place to keep workers on foot away from moving vehicles.

Two decisions. One untrained man on a forklift. No pedestrian controls. That is it. That is the whole story.

HSE inspector Emma Page called the injuries "truly life-changing." They are. They were entirely preventable.

If you are moving heavy loads, nobody on foot should be in the same space. No exceptions. If you are on a machine you have not been trained on — stop. Say so. The man in this story had no say in what happened to him. You might.