A Dodworth steel company has been fined £45,000 and ordered to pay £1,532 costs after a worker suffered head and brain injuries.

Barnsley Council's Regulatory Services prosecuted Shelley Steels Ltd, of Dodworth, after the employee was struck by a 61kg steel bar on March 8 last year.

On Thursday, Februay 9, Barnsley Magistrates Court heard that two employees were preparing an order for 10 steel bars. One was at the side of a combi-lift truck while the other rolled them backwards and forwards on the forks in order to form a stack.

As the combi-lift truck driver was stacking the bars, a two-metre steel bar flipped out from the combi-lift and struck the other employee on the head. He suffered severe head and brain injuries and has been unable to return to work.

A Regulatory Services health and safety inspector served an immediate prohibition notice which required the movement of steel stock to stop immediately until a safe system of work was implemented.

The firm, based at Fall Bank Industrial Estate, pleaded guilty to contravening Section 2 of Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, Regulation 3 (1) and Regulation 3 (3) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
 
Cabinet spokesman for Development, Environment and Culture (Operations), Cllr Roy Miller, said the incident was entirely preventable.