A Marden firm has been fined £22,000 after one of its workers was crushed.

The employee at engineering company K&G Maintenance Services Ltd suffered serious injuries when metal frames fell on him nearly two years ago.

Maidstone Crown Court heard how the firm was constructing four metal box-frames.
During the full welding of these frames, one of them fell from the lift which had been set up to allow them to be manoeuvred.

The frame tumbled when the sling came away from the chain block-hook and fell on the employee, whose spine was fractured leaving him permanently paralysed from the waist down.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive into the accident on August 8, 2014, found that the work was not planned and no safe systems of control were in place.

K & G Maintenance Services, of Underlyn Lane, Marden, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and the company was fined £22,000 and ordered to pay costs of £20,181.

HSE inspector Joanne Williams said after the hearing: “This serious accident which resulted in life-changing injuries was completely preventable and clearly demonstrated the need to ensure lifting operations are properly planned and managed.

“If suitable equipment had been provided to the employees and had the defective equipment been removed from the workshop, then this incident should not have happened.”