IP (Pontefract) Ltd was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay costs of £6,000 at Leeds Crown Court on Friday 30 May, after pleading guilty to breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

In January 2005, a forklift truck driver rounded a corner at the site and performed an emergency stop to avoid hitting an employee. A coil of steel wire slid off the forks and fell on the worker pinning him to the ground. The man later died in hospital.

HSE Inspector Geoff Fletcher said:

"This was a tragic and entirely avoidable incident, and a worker paid for that with his life. IP (Pontefract) failed to ensure that proper measures were taken to protect the worker and the consequences of that will affect his family forever.

"There should have been a system of work in place that adequately controlled the risks arising from vehicles moving around the site. Risk assessments had not been carried out and there was no system to adequately separate pedestrians and vehicles on the site. Training was inadequate and no refresher courses had been provided."