A man working for a haulage firm has received a six figure personal injury compensation payout.
The man, whose name has not been released but who worked as a shunter, was helping to load pallets on to wagons.
The man was seriously injured when he was flung from a barrow truck while working at a UK haulage company and has since received £245,000 in personal injury compensation.
The injury occurred as he reversed the truck to straighten it and then move forward. But it slid and spun around, throwing him off and causing the injury. The man’s leg was trapped between one of the bars at the side of the truck and a barrier on a wall, leading to a crushing injury and the man suffered a broken tibia.
His solicitors report that he continues to suffer major, regular pain and has limited mobility in his leg.
Carol Wild of Thompsons Solicitors, the law firm which handled the compensation claim, says:
“This was a serious accident that could have been avoided if the employer had ensured that there was proper maintenance and care of the workplace, which would have been a lot cheaper long-term for the employer than having to pay substantial compensation to their injured employee.”
Les Dobbs, a senior organiser with trade union GMB who helped the injured man make his claim for compensation, also commented:
“Haulage is a dangerous industry and unfortunately our members working in it do suffer serious injuries. All too often there is insufficient or non-existent observance of health and safety systems that will prevent or reduce accidents.”
The serious injuries suffered and the scale of the compensation payout following the accident which occurred in October 2006, highlights the seriousness of accidents at work involving trucks, fork lift trucks and other types of transport and haulage.
That year alone falls in the freight by road industry caused 299 major injuries in the UK including one fatality. Over two thirds of the falls were from vehicles. Common accident at work falls in this area are falls from trailers and truck cabs.
Overall, about ten people are killed each year in forklift truck accidents at work in the UK involving different types of accidents, including being run over and loads falling from trucks. Thousands of workers are also injured due to these types of accidents.
In fact, Health and Safety Executive (HSE) statistics highlights transport as the second biggest cause of work-related deaths, after falls from height.
Every year, around 70 people are killed in transport-related accidents at work in the UK.
Forklift trucks cause about one quarter of all serious workplace transport injuries, but other vehicles such as HGVs and ordinary cars and vans are also involved in this type of workplace injury too.
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