Black Country company told to pay £28,000 after young father crushed to death
A company has been told to pay more than £28,000 after an "easily preventable" industrial incident which took the life of a 23-year-old father.
Mitchell Pountney, 23, died on September 2, 2019 at Cutting Edge Skirting on Station Road, Rowley Regis after being fatally injured under the forks of a side-loader lift truck.
Cutting Edge Trading Limited has now been fined £18,000 and ordered to pay costs of £10,153 after an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
It was found the company had failed to provide a safe system of work for unloading palletised goods using the side-loader forklift truck.
Dudley Magistrates’ Court heard that Villa fan Mr Pountney, from Stourbridge, was fatally injured at the company site during a lifting operation.
Unsupported forks and carriage of a side-loader lift truck descended, crushing him while he was working underneath it.
The company pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
Speaking after the hearing, HSE principal inspector Jenny Skeldon said: "This tragic incident could have easily been prevented if this employer had acted to identify and manage the risks involved and put a safe system of work in place."
Speaking shortly after the incident, solicitor Bob Davies, acting on behalf of Cutting Edge Skirting, said: "Mitch was very well liked by the workers there and it’s been a very tragic incident."
