Circumstances of accident
We acted on behalf of our client in an action for personal injury which arose from an accident at work.
Our client was instructed by his employer to pick up a load of steel from their client’s worksite.
The steel was loaded onto the back of our client’s vehicle by employees at the worksite and straps were fastened over the top of the steel to hold it in place. Our client drove the vehicle back to his employer’s depot and began to unfasten the straps so that the steel could be removed from the vehicle. As our client unfastened the last strap, a steel beam fell from the vehicle and struck our client on the face and body causing him injury, the most serious of which was a degloving injury and fracture to his jaw.
Our client returned to work after two weeks despite not having fully recovered from his injuries.
How we helped our client
The worksite at which our client attended denied liability for the accident. They accused our client of being fully responsible for the accident occurring on the basis that it was his duty to check that the steel was loaded safely. We raised Court proceedings against our client’s employer and the worksite. The case was raised on the basis of various health & safety regulations which included: the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992; the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992; the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998; and, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
Settlement
We achieved damages for our client’s injuries in the sum of £14,000.
