Engineering Firm Fined After Worker Suffers Severe Injuries

An engineering firm has been fined £12,000 after a worker suffered severe injuries when he was struck by a metal frame.

The 21-year-old from Carlisle, who has not been named, sustained multiple cuts and fractures to his left foot and leg, and has been unable to return to work almost a year on from the incident.

Tweddle Fabrications Ltd, which trades as Tweddle Engineering, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after an investigation found the partially-constructed trailer chassis had swung out of control while being lifted by two forklift trucks.


Carlisle Magistrates' Court heard that workers had been trying to lift and rotate the frame at the factory in Kirkbride near Wigton on 27 February 2014. Another employee, not involved in the lift, was walking across the factory floor when the 1.8 tonne chassis moved in an uncontrolled way and struck him.

Tweddle Fabrications Ltd was fined £12,000 and ordered to pay £501 in prosecution costs.

(CD/JP)