Rochdale cleaner's crush death prompts £140,000 fine

A Rochdale plastics manufacturer has been fined £140,000 after a Portuguese cleaner was crushed to death by a pallet of bags weighing nearly one and a half tonnes.

TS (UK) was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive following the incident at the Stakehill Industrial Estate in Middleton for failing to ensure the safety of its employees, and not having a worker trained in First Aid on duty. Manchester Crown Court, Minshull Street, heard that Abel Lages was cleaning up a spillage in the yard on 15 July 2005 when a wooden pallet, containing 55 bags of polypropylene, fell on him.

The material, which is used to manufacture washing up bowls, buckets and other plastic products, is dangerous to stack as it can pour out if there is a tear in a bag,making the stack unstable.

Mr Lages, 38, was found trapped under one of the collapsed pallets and died from his injuries at the scene.