Personal Injury at work

sam_bailey88

Hey,
not posted on here for ages but wouldn't mind a little help on a personal injury claim. The injury itself happened at when I was working around two years ago. I work in a warehouse, at the time I was driving a reach truck; a sort of electric truck two long metal legs on. I was driving towards an open door with a light load of stacked pallets. I was approaching I was heading towards a metal barrier at speed (not very fast but fast enough), upon realising I wasn’t going to turn in time I took my foot off the 'dead man’s pedal' when the truck judderd and threw my foot out to the side of the truck however the truck carried on going into the barrier with my foot in-between. Very painful as the truck weighs half a tonne.

Immediately after I freed myself I fell to the floor when colleagues came to help me, carrying me to the first aid room. I was taken by work to the local infirmary and then the hospital for x-rays. I hadn’t broken my foot but crushed it very badly. They gave me crutches at the hospital along with painkillers and told me to rest as much as possible. Which I did. The following day the manager came round to get a statement off me and wish me well. In the end I was off work for four months and my foot is still numb on one side to this day where the nerves have been killed.

On my return to work nothing was ever said about it, no telling off, didn’t get banned off the truck, nothing said about the amount of time off work which is very unusual. (Eg. a guy had a trailer door drop on his head splitting it open, not his fault, on his return to work he gets a disciplinary).
The truck was seen by an engineer who came out as nothing wrong with the emergency stop.

So if you are still with me. Do I have grounds for a personal injury claim? I think I do because the truck did not stop when it was supposed to and carried on. Any other advice would be great cheers.

Thanks very much, Sam

SolicitorMidlands

You would need to prove there was something wrong with the truck rather than something you did to cause the accident, subject of course to you being adequately trained in how to use the truck.

Were you trained in how to use it? When was the training? When did you have refresher training?

Were any changes made after the accident to the truck?

hundredk

Such an incident should have been reported to HSE under RIDDOR
http://www.hse.gov.uk/riddor/riddor.htm

Company should have pre and post accident risk assessments. Depending on outcome of post accident RA, changes to procedures, training and H&S may have been made, some or all of which may be relevant to your situation. Does the company have regular service records before the accident...and after. Can the company generally demonstrate by way of documentation that they have taken reasonable preventative action.

A lot may also depend on what was in the statement - do you have a copy?

Are you still with the company? Did you do a pre operational check before using the truck? Why 2 years to decide to claim?

sam_bailey88

SolicitorMidlands wrote: »

You would need to prove there was something wrong with the truck rather than something you did to cause the accident, subject of course to you being adequately trained in how to use the truck.

Were you trained in how to use it? When was the training? When did you have refresher training?

Were any changes made after the accident to the truck?

Yes i was trained, cant remember when it was, not long before it happend. A month maybe? And after two years no refresher training, dont think there is such a thing to them!

sam_bailey88

hundredk wrote: »

Such an incident should have been reported to HSE under RIDDOR
http://www.hse.gov.uk/riddor/riddor.htm

Company should have pre and post accident risk assessments. Depending on outcome of post accident RA, changes to procedures, training and H&S may have been made, some or all of which may be relevant to your situation. Does the company have regular service records before the accident...and after. Can the company generally demonstrate by way of documentation that they have taken reasonable preventative action.

A lot may also depend on what was in the statement - do you have a copy?

Are you still with the company? Did you do a pre operational check before using the truck? Why 2 years to decide to claim?

Yeah its one of the large food retailers so should have records of services before and after. Whether the company could have taken preventative action... In my eyes have faster emergency stops, bear in mind my foot came off the pedal, moved by the side of the truck then rolled into the barrier... if it was life and death it would surely be better to have it faster?

I dont have a copy, i may ask for one tomorrow when i go in.

And yes, still with the company, yes do a pre op check, and two years because... im sure they'd put me on the worst job there is, i should be leaving summer so thats why i guess.

Cheers.

hundredk

In a personal injury claim your employer would have to demonstrate they have/had reasonable procedures in place to prevent such an accident. Service records, up to date risk assessments, training records, vehicle check lists, signage are all evidence of reasonable control measures. Similarly lack of these demonstrate the opposite.

If they can demonstrate that service was as per manufacturer handbook and you have completed pre op check you may have difficulty proving the truck was faulty. Is the dead mans pedal designed to slow the truck rather than instantly stop it (instant stop may create other hazards such as unstable load).

Will the company try to say you were driving too fast? If you signed pre op check, did you defect the dead mans pedal or point this out to anyone? If so were you instructed to carry on?


Injury sounds quite bad, especially if its permanent. Plenty of personal injury solicitors advertise no win no fee and would carry out initial assessment to see if you have a case - put "no win no fee" in google.

If you are moved jobs, ask for reasons - most contracts will allow for any other reasonable duties but moving a FLT driver to (say) packing and then using another FLT driver may be dubious. get things in writing.

SolicitorMidlands

Unfortunately, due to the length of time since the accident, it may be difficult to find a solicitor.

Generally, cases involving work equipment are good ones but not if there is no fault with the truck. What did you employer say they thought the cause of the accident was?

Is the truck still in use?

Have any changes been made since the incident?

Crazy_Jamie

Just to throw some more questions at you, but was there an accident report made? If so, what did it say? How do you know that the engineer's report said that there was no fault with the emergency brake? Have you seen the report?

I agree with SM that you're on rocky ground with a potential claim due to the length of time since the accident, but also due to the apparent evidential issues.

sam_bailey88

SolicitorMidlands wrote: »

Unfortunately, due to the length of time since the accident, it may be difficult to find a solicitor.

Generally, cases involving work equipment are good ones but not if there is no fault with the truck. What did you employer say they thought the cause of the accident was?

Is the truck still in use?

Have any changes been made since the incident?

Not really... they just said it was 'inexperience'. I cant remember which truck it was but im 99.9% sure its still in use; evern though it is like very old! And changes... couldnt be sure about the truck? Could have sharpend the pedal stop up, some are very slow, others will stop immediately. As to the work place a few changes after i returned (Not sure whether due to me or not). Gave us licenses to carry basically reminding us to take care and keep all limbs inside the truck. And painted the barriers yellow. I think thats it.

Cheers again.

sam_bailey88

Crazy_Jamie wrote: »

Just to throw some more questions at you, but was there an accident report made? If so, what did it say? How do you know that the engineer's report said that there was no fault with the emergency brake? Have you seen the report?

I agree with SM that you're on rocky ground with a potential claim due to the length of time since the accident, but also due to the apparent evidential issues.

Yeah im sure a report was made, by me. Is that the right thing? If it is from what i can remember basically what i said at the start of the post. I haven't actually seen the report, it was just said in passing kind of thing.

Also, it just makes me wonder whether they could have done something as they seem very quick to give out punishment when there is the slightest blame yet nothing was ever said to me.

Cheers.

SolicitorMidlands

If the truck is still in use, unchanged, your employer is likely to say that there was nothing wrong with it and that it has been used since the incident with no problems. Naturally, we can't advise without submitting a claim and considering their response and disclosure documents but on the current evidence, I would probably not run this case.