Worcestershire | Archive | 2002 | May | 1
From the archive, first published Wednesday 1st May 2002.
A 26-year-old maintenance fitter was killed when the blade of a forklift truck became snagged on machinery, snapped off and struck his head.
Calvin Hughes had been trying to mend a machine at United Engineering Forgings Ltd on Sherwood Road in Bromsgrove when the accident happened, an inquest heard yesterday.
A conveyor on a hot cropping machine had broken overnight, and when Mr Hughes, started his shift on Wednesday, July 4, last year, it was his job to fix it.
"He had been fitting an output chute because the conveyor was broken," said Andrea Katerinas, HM inspector for health and safety, giving evidence.
The broken conveyor was removed by forklift truck and Mr Hughes brought the chute across the room on an overhead crane.
"He tried to swing the chute into place three or four times but it wouldn't go because there was a big flywheel in the way," Darren Williams a machine operator working near Mr Hughes at the time, told the jury.
Mr Hughes, of Beechey Close, Great Barr, Birmingham, took the chute off the overhead crane and attached it to the right blade of a forklift truck with a piece of rope.
Serviceman Michael Barnett helped Mr Hughes by driving the forklift truck into position.
Mr Hughes then disappeared from sight.
"Then I just heard an almighty bang," he said.
The jury heard how the blade had become snagged on the machinery, snapped and hit Mr Hughes.
Giving evidence, Thomas Treble, HM specialist inspector in mechanical engineering for the Health & Safety Executive, said the blade had a flaw in it.
Mr Treble said constant fluctuations in the weight of the forklift's load had caused the flaw to grow.
"By the time of the accident, the defect was about 4in," he said.
Mr Treble told the jury forklift trucks should be inspected annually to detect flaws.
"There's no evidence that this had been done and there's no evidence that the defect had been detected prior to the accident," he said.
Worcestershire Coroner Victor Round said the combination of the blade becoming snagged and the defect had caused the accident.
"The moment he suffered it, he would know no more about it," said Mr Round.
"He suffered multiple injuries - brain injuries and multiple skull fractures."
The jury returned a majority verdict of accidental death.
© Newsquest Media Group 2008