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Grimsby firm fined after worker's warehouse death

The banded steel coils after their collapse in ABCs former warehouse in Immingham DocksA Grimsby haulage company has been sentenced for safety failings after a worker was killed when a row of steel coils 'collapsed like dominos' trapping him under their five-tonne weight.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted ABC (Grimsby) Ltd. after Alan Burr, a warehouseman and forklift truck driver, was fatally crushed when he tried to repair some torn packaging on a roll of coil at the firm's warehouse in Henderson Quay, Immingham Docks, on 27 January 2010.

Grimsby Crown Court heard that Mr. Burr, a long-serving employee at the company, had been stacking the narrow banded coils on rolls in batches of four or five, with a gap between each coil. Each coil measured five feet in diameter and weighed around one tonne.

As he was standing between two of the rolls to repair the damaged wrapping, one of them toppled, causing a domino effect to the stack. The 52-year-old, from East Halton, Immingham, was trapped under the weight and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The investigation found that the method used by Mr. Burr to store the coils was a common one and others had stored them in a similar way. No one from the company had instructed the employees not to do this.

ABC (Grimsby) Ltd. of Lancaster Approach, North Killingholme, Immingham, pleaded guilty to two charges of breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The company was fined a total of £25,000 and ordered to pay £20,000 costs.

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