Venue

DHL Exel has been ordered to pay a total of more than £33,000 in fines and costs after a worker died unloading a truck.

The accident occurred in April 2004 during Tibbett and Britten's ownership, before Exel's purchase of the company two months later. Forklift driver John Rowland, 25, was crushed to death when a plastic bale, weighing half a tonne, toppled from a trailer as he unloaded it at the Runcorn depot.

The company admitted that it had failed to supply written safety procedures  for dealing with unsafe loads, during a hearing before Runcorn magistrates. In mitigation it was said that the company had undertaken risk assessments previously but on this occasion staff had not been correctly trained in dealing with unsafe loads.

The company was fined £10,000 with £23,300 costs.