Company fined £200,000 after father was crushed to death by lorry at garage

A company has been fined £200,000 after an employee was crushed to death by a lorry at its garage in Lynn.Marcin Horyza had been repairing the vehicle at Ford and Slater’s site on the Saddlebow industrial estate when it lowered and landed on top of him on May 9, 2022.Mr Horyza’s wife has now revealed her husband was the family’s “rock”, and that they are still struggling to comprehend his absence.

The 31-year-old, who lived in Lynn, had been working beneath the DAF vehicle as he fixed the front-end air suspension.While carrying out this task, there was a loss of air pressure in the suspension, meaning the vehicle lowered to its minimum height and crushed Mr Horzya underneath.A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found Ford and Slater had failed to ensure there were suitable controls in place to prevent the vehicle descending to its lowest point.

The correct calibration blocks for this task had not been provided to Mr Horyza, while the company did not produce a risk assessment or a safe system of work for his task. Ford and Slater, which has headquarters in Leicester, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.The company was fined £200,000 at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on December 5. Katarzyna Horyza, Mr Horyza’s wife, said: “We have lost our family’s rock and happiness. Never had I imagined that Marcin leaving for work, where he should feel safe, would never come back to us and we would never see him again.

“We feel emptiness and sorrow, our lives have changed forever.“Our kids will never have a father again. I don’t know how our lives will look now without Marcin, we will always miss him and we cannot accept his absence.”District Judge Williams, in his summation at court in December, said that there was simply no safe system for work (SSOW) in place.

HSE inspector Michael Collins said: “The fine imposed on Ford and Slater Limited should underline to everyone in the vehicle maintenance industry whose work requires them to work on air suspension systems that the courts, and HSE take a failure to evaluate risk and implement suitable controls extremely seriously. “HSE will not hesitate to take action against companies which do not do all that they should to keep people safe.“When risk assessing any task, employers should try to eliminate the identified risk completely, in this case not working below a vehicle, or, where this is impractical, they should provide controls to mitigate the identified risk, in this case providing a SSOW and the necessary tools that would have prevented the risk of crushing.”This prosecution was brought by HSE enforcement lawyer Gemma Zakrzewski and supported by paralegal officer Melissa Wardle.Ford and Slater has been approached for comment.