The horrific moment a worker was killed when he was crushed against a wall by a lorry in a pasty factory was captured on video.
Paul Clarke, 40, had clocked on for a shift at a Ginsters pasty factory in Callington, Cornwall, when the lorry reversed into him as it backed into a loading bay.
The harrowing footage was released after the Ginsters owner was fined £1.28 million, pleading guilty to health and safety breaches.
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The vehicle was delivering supplies to the bakery that makes the pasties around 7am on Thursday, December 2, 2021.
(Image: HSE / SWNS)
Mr Clarke was airlifted to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth were he died, Cornwall Live reports. He has only just recently joined The Cornwall Bakery, where Ginsters products are made, as an intake operator. He had been moving strip curtains in the loading bay before the lorry hit him.
Ginsters operators Samworth Brothers had not assessed the risks associated with the temporarily installed strip curtains, a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found.
(Image: HSE / SWNS)
There was no safe system of work to move them out of the way one lorries reversed into the loading bay.
The strip curtains had been installed in place of a faulty roller door. The report also found site staff had not been provided with training or instructions to to move the curtains and had devised their own methods, which included standing in the yard behind reversing vehicles.
Mr Clarke was new to the role and was working his first lone shift and management failings had not picked up the additional risks associated with this task, the report added.
Bernice, Mr Clarke’s mother, said in a statement: “Paul was a family man and loved big family holidays, which will never be the same without him. I have not been on a family holiday since I feel so much guilt towards Paul. We don’t celebrate Christmas as the date is too close and it is just not the same.
(Image: HSE / SWNS)
“Paul and I had a very special relationship between a mother and a son. We were always talking and catching up. I would call him every weekend and see what he was doing. He would always come out with us on a bike ride or a walk. We all miss Paul very much every day, our lives will never be the same without Paul.”
Samworth Brothers Limited, of Samworth Way, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The company was fined £1.28 million and ordered to pay £24,106 in costs at Plymouth Magistrates’ Court on Thursday (November 7).
HSE inspector Aimie Baker said: “Bernice’s words make clear the impact the passing of Paul has had and our thoughts remain with her and her family.”
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