A Suffolk company has been fined £30,000 after a young worker was run over and dragged by a forklift truck at Ipswich docks, leaving him with serious injuries.
Qube Containers Limited, based in Bury St Edmunds, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following the incident on 11 December 2023, in which 21-year-old employee Harvey Addison, from Ipswich, suffered a broken ankle and required skin grafts.
Mr Addison had been unloading cars from shipping containers at the company’s site when the accident occurred. He was working with a colleague to empty two small bins of waste packaging into a larger commercial waste bin. The smaller bins had been placed on a pallet carried by a forklift truck, with Addison standing on the pallet at the time.
As the forklift moved, ratchet straps fell from the bins and became tangled in the vehicle’s wheels. One strap caught on Mr Addison’s foot, pulling him to the ground before the forklift ran over him. He was taken to hospital, where he spent nine days receiving treatment, including skin grafts to his leg and thigh.
An HSE investigation found that Qube Containers Limited had failed to provide safe equipment for the task and had not carried out a risk assessment for the system of work being used. Inspectors also noted that traffic routes on site were poorly organised, with vehicles and pedestrians operating in close proximity.
The company pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. At Norwich Magistrates’ Court on 12 September 2025, the firm was fined £30,000 and ordered to pay £3,752 in costs.
HSE Inspector Adepeju Sogadgi stressed that the incident highlighted the importance of proper risk management. She said: “This injury could easily have been prevented. Employers introducing new processes should make sure they assess the work activity sufficiently and apply effective control measures to minimise the risk. There should be systems in place to ensure safety and the risk should have been considered and documented.”
The prosecution was brought by HSE enforcement lawyer Julian White with support from paralegal officer Hannah Snelling.