Worker's fatal fall 'wouldn't have happened' if employer did more to control risks, jury told

Married dad-of-three Peter Hutchinson, 60, fell about 5ft and suffered a fatal head injury while helping to load a shipping container with plastic bales for Bertschi Ltd. Now the logistics company has gone on trial accused of health and safety offences, more than four years after the tragic accident.

James Puzey, prosecuting for the Health and Safety Executive, said on Monday (Apr 20): “The HSE investigated a workplace accident that took place as long ago as on November 4, 2021. In that incident, Mr Peter Hutchinson died.

“He had worked for Bertschi for a number of years, rising through the ranks to become a respected warehouse supervisor. Peter Hutchinson died from injuries sustained whilst at work.

“He was assisting in the loading of a container. Mr Hutchinson fell from the portable loading ramp that was being used to help the loading.

“He was on the ramp, trying to help a colleague who was operating a fork lift truck. The truck was carrying the bales and loading them in the container.

“When Mr Hutchinson fell from the ramp, he hit his head and received the fatal head injuries,” he told Teesside Crown Court as he opened a trial expected to last two weeks.

He added: “If the ramp had had rails along its side, that wouldn’t have happened.” He also contended if the loading ramp had not been used at all – and a “reach stacker” used to load the container from the ground instead – then “Mr Hutchinson would not have died”.

He said: “The case is about the risk for people such as Mr Hutchinson falling from a loading ramp, and what Bertschi could and should have done to control that risk.

“The prosecution case is this work could have been done from the ground level,” Mr Puzey said.

The company, which transports bulk products in the chemical industry and employs 137 people at its site on Middlesbrough Road East, South Bank, denies three offences of failing to do its duty under health and safety laws – one of ensuring employees’ health and safety and two relating to employees working at height.

Mr Puzey said the prosecution did not need to prove Bertschi caused a particular incident: “The prosecution must prove that the employer failed to ensure the safety of its employees as far as was reasonably practicable.”

He said jurors had to decide whether there was a risk, and whether the company could not reasonably have done more to reduce the risk and keep employees safe.

It is alleged the firm failed to ensure the loading of the bales, weighing nearly half a tonne each, was properly planned or appropriate equipment used. Mr Puzey said the company had procedures for working at height, loading and unloading containers and workplace transport safety, but there were “important omissions”.

He told the jury the company had been loading plastic bales on to lorries before the accident, and it was not unusual to use a mobile ramp to load containers with pallets: “However this occasion, November 4, was the first time that the company had loaded a container with the bales. This was a new activity.”

The trial is expected to last about two weeks.