Employee overwhelmed to death at Nationwide Platforms situation

Lee Benham died on 4 November 2021 while making an strive to plug a scissor take at Nationwide’s workshop in Liskeard, Cornwall.

The Forty five-year-light, who used to be from south east London nonetheless lived in Liskeard, used to be working for Nationwide as an LGV driver when the incident came about. He used to be running a scissor take from the ground to clear an gain entry to direction so he would possibly perhaps plug devices of machinery out of the workshop and load it onto his lorry within the yard.

The portable controls on the scissor take were in a assortment which formulation that their direction used to be inverted, and when Benham operated the machinery, it came in direction of him and overwhelmed him against a static scissor take.

An HSE investigation into the incident realized Nationwide Platforms Restricted did now not sufficiently comprise in solutions the hazards of running machinery by portable controls, and did now not supply applicable monitoring and supervision for the interval of the morning when drivers were loading machinery onto their lorries.

Nationwide Platforms Restricted, of Lutterworth, Leicestershire, pleaded responsible to safety breaches and used to be fined £900,000 and ordered to pay £12,405 in prices at Plymouth Magistrates’ Court docket.

HSE inspector Simon Jones acknowledged: “This used to be a tragic incident and a stark reminder to agencies to be thorough in their possibility evaluate. The mission which resulted in Lee’s death haven’t got arisen had applicable withhold an eye on measures been in build.”

Benham’s accomplice accomplice Kelly acknowledged: “Lee used to be my soulmate, my finest friend, my rock. Now I even haven’t got anything as a change of my ladies. There are now not any phrases that can report whenever you comprise had your heart ripped out. Our lives are in devices, and it is valid the three of us now.”