Employee Suffers Back Injury In Manual Handling Accident
While Simon was unloading a lorry-load of frozen goods, one of the pallet truck wheels got stuck, preventing him from continuing with his task. He tried to lift it free but his exertion caused him to pull a muscle in his back. The injury rendered him immobile for a number of weeks, impacting his life both at work and at home.
When he was 23 years old, Simon was employed by a major supermarket chain as a warehouse assistant. He had held the same role for two years, and his duties involved loading and unloading lorries as and when it was necessary.
On the morning of 16th April 2009, the father of one was unloading a lorry of produce and frozen goods. As per usual he worked alone, removing the pallets of produce from the rear trailer with a pallet truck. With the assistance of a pallet truck the produce was safely transferred onto a scissors lift before being pulled into the warehouse.
He had been working at this task for ten minutes when he began removing a pallet of potatoes weighing in the region of 300kg. Suddenly, one of the pallet truck wheels got stuck between a gap at the rear of the trailer and the scissor lift.
Attempting to rectify the situation, Simon pulled the pallet truck from side to side, but he was unable to shift the wheels. He attempted to do so once again, this time a little harder. However, this caused him to suffer a sudden intense pain in his lower back. He was in agony and could not bear to even straighten his back.
Realising he could no longer continue with his duties, Simon told the manager about his accident and, being unable to ride his bicycle, travelled home on public transport. The same afternoon he attended an NHS Walk-In Centre where a nurse told Simon he had pulled a muscle in his back.
He was signed off work for a week, but even after seven days his pain had not alleviated. Consequently he attended his GP who prescribed Co-codamol. Despite having strong painkillers, Simon's symptoms did not get any better and he was unable to return to work for the following six months.
During that time he was effectively house-bound, being unable even to get in and out the bath on his own. He could not help his partner around the house as he would normally, having to leave all the cooking, cleaning, shopping and domestic chores up to her. Nor could he play with his three year old daughter, something Simon found extremely upsetting.
Frustrated by the injury he had sustained at work, Simon contacted us to talk about what options, if any, we open to him. He believed that his employer was to blame for his accident, as he had been left to carry out a manual handling job on his own, when it was clearly a two man job.
We agreed that his employer had failed to provide a safe system of work, meaning they were directly responsible for his back injury. We helped Simon make a work accident claim and he was awarded £3,600 compensation.
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