Tuffnells fined £35k after employee breaks leg

Sheffield-based Tuffnells Parcels Express has been ordered to pay more than £40,000 in fines and costs for an accident that resulted in an employee breaking his leg.

On 18 March 2008 at the courier's Leighton Buzzard depot, 53-year-old porter Michael Tierney fractured his thigh bone when he fell 4ft off a truck he was unloading. The driver had unexpectedly pulled away from the loading dock.

Health & Safety Executive inspector Graham Tompkins says: "Tuffnells was aware that someone could be inside the back of a vehicle when it drove off and had produced a risk assessment to be issued to new drivers with their employment contracts. However, in this case the driver had not received a contract and had not seen the risk assessment."

For its failure to comply with health and safety regulations concerning employers ensuring the welfare at work of all its employees, the firm was fined £35,000 at Bedfordshire Magistrates' Court on 18 December, plus £5,134 in costs.

Tuffnells Parcels Express declined to comment.