Norfolk-based Osprey Foods have been fined £66,000 after an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that it had not taken appropriate measures to control vehicle movements on their site. This follows an employee having their leg amputated after he was injured loading a lorry.
The worker was loading an HGV using a pallet truck in July 2023 when it pulled away while the man was still inside the trailer, causing both him and the pallet truck to fall between the loading dock and the rear of the vehicle.
Read more: Roofing director sentenced after fatal fall at Bestway site
The investigation found the traffic light system used to tell the HGV drivers when it was safe to move their vehicles had broken several weeks prior to the incident and had not been repaired. The traffic light remained green during the loading process, meaning that the driver pulled away thinking it was safe to do so and unaware that the man was still in the back of the vehicle.
Osprey Foods pleaded guilty to breaching sections 2 (1) and 3 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £66,000 and ordered to pay £5,850 in costs at Peterborough Magistrates’ Court on 20 June 2025.
HSE inspector Natalie Prince said “Every year, a significant number of incidents, many of them serious and sometimes fatal, occur as a result of failure to manage vehicles moving around safely. In this case, a simple repair to a traffic light system.”
