Holt JCB fined £69,929 after 400kg wheel falls on worker's feet

Holt JCB Limited was fined £69,929 (inc.costs) after the wheel of a JCB digger fell onto one of its workers.

The circumstances were:

• The worker was tasked with changing air filled wheel with foam filled wheels on
  8 April 2016.
• Each wheel weighs more than 400kg.
• There was no handling equipment for the wheels.
• Holt JCB has not assessed the risks of this operation.
• They had not trained workers on how to handle wheels.
• A wheel fell, leaving the man with broken bones in both feet.
• The company were prosecuted under Regulation 4(1) of the Manual Handling Regulations 1992.

The HSE inspector said: 

“This incident could have been prevented if the company had used a mechanical wheel handler costing less than £700. Measures such as this would have been apparent had the task been properly assessed.”