The Health & Safety Executive is again warning stone companies to carry out risk assessments following the prosecution of stone wholesalers Stoneville in Brentford, London, in relation to the death of a worker.

Stoneville (UK) Ltd of Set Star Estate, Brentford, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey last month (March) to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974 that requires employers to ensure “the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees”. Stoneville were fined £4,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,000.

The case arose from the death of Jerzy Tomasz Pejda, an employee of Stoneville (UK), in 2005.

On 2 November that year he and three other employees unloaded a delivery of granite slabs and tiles at the Stoneville yard.

The slabs were delivered in a shipping container which held eight wooden crates. After the first three crates had been removed, Jerzy Pejda and one of his colleagues climbed inside the container to unload the large granite slabs.

Some slabs became unstable and fell towards the centre of the container.

Jerzy’s colleague jumped out of the container but Jerzy was trapped between the falling slabs and a bundle of granite that was secured inside the container.

The other workers attempted to free Jerzy but they were unable to do so. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

His body was removed from the container with the help of the local fire brigade.

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that there was a camber on the road that caused the load on the trailer to destabilise and lean towards the yard.

The company had failed to conduct a risk assessment that should have resulted in a plan for the unloading of the container in such a way that risks to employees were controlled.

HSE inspector Owen Yorath said: “The death of Mr Pejda was the tragic result of a failure to take practicable precautions to control the risks associated with the unloading of vehicles.

“Employers must learn from this tragedy that it is essential that companies carry out a risk assessment for the loading and unloading of workplace transport.

“Companies must also make sure the staff and management are properly trained and adhere to the risk assessment, to avoid such fatalities.

“There are significant risks associated with the handling of materials such as stone and employers must ensure they have adequate control measures in place to manage those risks.”