Smith & Nephew Medical, a medical technology company based in the northern English city of Hull, has been sentenced after a forklift accident that resulted in a 64-year-old employee sustaining life-changing injuries.

Hull Crown Court heard that on 22 December 2020, Mr Dubey was delivering a large crate containing an electron microscope to Smith & Nephew Medical’s site.

Nippon Express had originally intended to provide a forklift truck and driver for the delivery. However, due to restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, Smith & Nephew Medical sought to reduce the number of people on site and took responsibility for unloading the goods.

The task was not properly assessed, planned or supervised. As a result, Mr Dubey was positioned unsafely and the load was lifted in an unsafe manner, causing the crate to fall from the forklift truck and land on him, resulting in life-changing injuries.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Smith & Nephew Medical Ltd had failed to adequately plan the unloading operation.

There was no assessment of the suitability of the company’s two-tonne forklift truck in relation to the characteristics of the load.

The company also failed to consider how the lift should be carried out, who should be involved and what precautions were necessary. The unloading operation was not meaningfully controlled or supervised.

Smith & Nephew Medical was fined GBP230,000 (USD309,980) and ordered to pay GBP111,000 (USD149,600) in costs.

“The company should have had clear procedures in place setting out how deliveries were to be managed and what safety measures were required for third parties attending site,” says HSE Inspector David Stewart.

“These requirements did not change just because normal delivery arrangements at Smith & Nephew had changed, due to restrictions on third-party access during the COVID-19 pandemic.”