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Royal Mail Group Limited fined £50,000 after worker's foot run over in bundling warehouse in Maidstone Road, Rochester

A worker’s foot was left broken and bruised when it was run over by a forklift in a Royal Mail bundling warehouse in Rochester.

The Royal Mail Group Limited has now been fined £50,000 after an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found the organisation of the transport system in the warehouse was unsafe.

Medway Magistrates Court heard that the worker was not wearing safety boots with steel toe caps when the incident took place on March 7, 2014 at the warehouse in Maidstone Road, Rochester.

The Royal Mail bundling warehouse in Maidstone Road, Rochester. Picture: Google Street View
The Royal Mail bundling warehouse in Maidstone Road, Rochester. Picture: Google Street View

The worker stepped out into an aisle and another worker, who was driving the reach truck, ran over his foot causing broken bones and bruising.

The HSE found that pedestrians and vehicles could not circulate safely as they both operated in the same areas without segregation.

Investigators concluded that better organisation of the workplace transport within the warehouse would have prevented this incident from happening.

Royal Mail Group Limited pleaded guilty to breaching Regulations 17(1) of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, and Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, and was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay costs of £10,406.

The man's foot was run over by a reach truck. Picture: Wikimedia
The man's foot was run over by a reach truck. Picture: Wikimedia

A spokesman for the company said: “The safety of our people is of paramount importance to Royal Mail. We sincerely regret the injury to one of our employees in March 2014 at one of our sites in Rochester. We undertook our own investigation, as well as cooperating fully with the HSE’s investigation.

“We have worked with our unions and our people to introduce a number of measures to improve safety at this site.”

These measures include portable safety barriers to separate people and vehicles, clearer floor markings to highlight safe walkways, and extra health and safety training.

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