Prosecution Details

Being an employer at a workplace, failed to ensure that persons were not lifted or suspended by plant at a workplace, namely a forklift truck, or its attachment, which was not plant specifically designed for the lifting or suspending of persons.

The defendant operated a freight transport company in Welshpool.

On 1 July 2002 a WorkSafe inspector undertook an inspection of the premises and whilst doing so observed an employee driving a forklift which had an empty pallet attached to the tynes and witness the driver stop the forklift next to a truck trailer, raise the tynes with the attached pallet approximately a metre above the bed of a truck trailer and then climb around the mast of the forklift and up onto the pallet.

The WorkSafe Inspector also observed another forklift driver, driving a forklift with a pallet attached to its tynes. The driver stopped the forklift next to a trailer truck whilst another employee then stepped onto the pallet and was lifted a metre above the bed of the trailer truck. This placed the employee approximately 2.5 metres above the ground.