High street store fined over safety


National chain store Wilko has been fined £2.2 million after a worker was crushed and left paralysed just over a year after it was fined over the death of a worker. 


Corisande Collins, 23, had just completed the first year of a degree at Northampton University and had taken work at the Beaumont Shopping Centre branch, Leicester in 2013. She was pulling a roll cage overloaded with 507lb of paint out of a lift when it toppled on her, the court heard.


The prosecution described it as a “high culpability case” as there was no risk assessment for the lift or the use of the roll cages, as well as “inadequate training and supervision”.


Health and safety inspectors said they were “shocked” by practices at the store, adding “the systems were unsafe”.


Last January Wilko was ordered to pay almost £400,000 in fines and costs after an employee was killed when he was crushed between two forklift trucks at its Worksop distribution centre.


George Hancock died from injuries sustained when a large diesel-powered truck knocked over the smaller electrically-powered truck he was operating. He was not wearing a seatbelt. An inquest jury at Nottingham Coroner’s Court in December 2013 recorded a verdict of accidental death.


Bassetlaw District Council prosecuted the firm after investigating the December 2011 incident.


Judge Sampson said there was no proper monitoring of truck movements and “this was an accident waiting to happen”.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-38584045

https://www.healthandsafetyatwork.com/workplace-transport/wilko-george-hancock

www.gainsboroughstandard.co.uk/news/wilko-driver-s-death-at-worksop-depot-was-accident-waiting-to-happen-1-7673785