A company director has appeared in court on 6th March 2024 following the tragic death of an employee at Graniteland Limited in the West Midlands on 30th November 2020.

Robert Czachracz was crushed by two granite slabs while unpacking and moving the slabs onto storage racks, using an overhead crane, at the company’s Lyde Green site in Halesowen.

Two of the slabs, each weighing 250kg, fell and crushed Mr Czachracz against a forklift truck while he was operating the crane’s handheld pendant control.

He died at the scene despite desperate attempts from bystanders at nearby businesses and the emergency services to save him.

Staff training and safe systems were not implemented

 The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Graniteland Limited and its director, Mr Shu Lai Li, failed to implement staff training or develop safe systems of work for the unloading, loading and handling of concrete slabs.

There was no evidence that employees had received training in the safe operation of machinery, including the overhead crane. The overhead crane and forklift truck had also not been thoroughly examined, as required by law, and that webbing slings, that could have been used during the unpacking process, were damaged.

Graniteland Limited pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The company was fined £18,000 and ordered to pay £4,196.03 in costs at Dudley Magistrates’ Court on 6 March 2024.

Mr Shu Lai Li, of Lyde Green, Halesowen, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 37(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. He was ordered to complete 120 hours of unpaid work and pay £4,043.42 in costs at Dudley Magistrates’ Court on 6 March 2024.

HSE inspector Mahesh Mahey said: “This was an entirely preventable accident. The risks of lifting and moving granite slabs were obvious yet could have been controlled by relatively simple and inexpensive measures. The company and director failed to adequately control lifting operations which resulted in an employee needlessly and tragically losing his life.”

It is your legal responsibility to ensure that your staff have received appropriate training before they operate any material handling equipment (MHE), and we can help you with this. To view our range of forklift truck training courses, please click here.

Our passion is to work with companies in the MHE industry to ensure high standards of operations to reduce accidents and ultimately make our workplaces safer. Our thoughts are with Mr Czachracz’s family.