Worker has leg amputated after being injured loading lorry

A food wholesaler has been fined £66,000 after an employee’s leg had to be amputated when he was injured while loading a lorry.

He was loading an HGV using a pallet truck at Osprey Foods, in Holt, Norfolk on July 5, 2023.

The HGV pulled away while the man was still inside the trailer, causing both him and the pallet truck to fall between the loading dock and the rear of the vehicle.

The injuries he sustained were so severe his leg had to be amputated.

The man fell from the back of a HGV after it was being loaded

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Osprey Foods had not taken appropriate measures to control vehicle movements on their site.

The traffic light system used to tell the HGV drivers when it was safe to move their vehicles had broken several weeks prior to the incident and had not been repaired.

The traffic light remained green during the loading process, meaning that the driver pulled away thinking it was safe to do so and unaware that the man was still in the back of the vehicle.

Osprey Foods, of Holt, Norfolk, pleaded guilty to breaching sections 2 (1) and 3 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

The company was fined £66,000 and ordered to pay £5,850 in costs at Peterborough Magistrates’ Court on June 20, 2025.

HSE inspector Natalie Prince said “Every year, a significant number of incidents, many of them serious and sometimes fatal, occur as a result of failure to manage vehicles moving around safely.

“In this case, a simple repair to a traffic light system has resulted in a worker suffering life-changing injuries.”

The HSE prosecution was brought by HSE enforcement lawyer Arfaq Nabi and paralegal officer Helen Hugo.