Worker crushed to death by golf buggy was 'not properly supervised'

A worker crushed by a golf buggy was not properly supervised during the Covid pandemic, a court heard today. Warren Hayles, a mechanic, had jacked it up too high in his workshop to service it and it fell on him causing fatal injuries.

His company GNH Agri, of Meithrinfa, Aberdesach, south of Caernarfon, pleaded guilty to an offence of breaching its duty to an employee. A judge at Mold Crown Court said supervision was "unacceptable" and fined the firm £16,000 plus £18,000 costs.

Prosecutor Joseph Hart said Mr Hayles had been given his own workshop during social distancing in the Covid pandemic. He was working alone in there on November 3, 2021 when the buggy fell from a stacker truck and caused fatal, crush injuries. You can sign up for all the latest court stories here

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Mr Hayles was discovered later by workmates who alerted the emergency services and a local farmer. Sadly Mr Hayles died from his injuries.

The court heard Mr Hayles, who was said to be a "competent mechanic", had been given training to work on golf buggies by company director Robert Parry. He had "shadowed" Mr Parry and was told to only raise buggies by two or three feet.

On the day in question the court heard Mr Hayles was using a "stacker lift" also known as a "pallet lift" - like a handheld, forklift truck - to raise a golf buggy so he could work on it.

Mr Hart said: "The risk assessment for this operation was wholly insufficient. There was no supervision of the operation and no adequate or clearly communicated system of working."

The failure to properly supervise him was serious and there were no written documents about how to carry out the operation. The prosecutor said: "Even lifting the (buggies) to a modest height was dangerous."

He added it had been "only a matter of time" before a serious accident occurred. In a statement Beryl Hayles, Mr Hayles' mother, said: "It is utterly devastating to lose one's son." The prosecutor said it shows a "degree of dignity" that Mrs Hayles does not seek to blame anybody.

In her own statement, Mr Hayles' widow said her husband had said he loved her as he went to work that morning. She said: "If I had known the next time I saw him he would have been lying on a dirty floor - cold to the touch - I would have held him tighter and longer."

Mark Balysz, defending GNH Agri, said the company feels "regret and sorrow" and it publicly apologises for Mr Hayles' loss. He was "extremely well-liked and respected" and his life had a "priceless value".

He said the stacker truck was intended to be ratcheted up to raise the buggy two or three feet. It was to save straining employees' backs.

He said Mr Parry had said straps should be used to secure the buggy to the stacker truck. Mr Balysz added: "Mr Hayles had not been trained to lift the golf buggy at over head height.

"There was no need to go under the buggy" and it had been raised to an "inexplicable" height.

Mr Balysz said GNH Agri, which had two officers and fewer than five staff, had had 207 buggies for hire and 97 for sale. The death happened during the "seismic" Covid-19 pandemic.

The judge Her Honour Nicola Jones found the buggy had been raised to a dangerous height, there had been an insufficient risk assessment and supervision was unacceptable despite Covid social distancing guidelines. It happened in a workshop with little space to avoid a falling buggy.

"It's clear this was an accident waiting to happen," she added. However she noted that GNH Agri, which had a turnover of about £2m which dropped to £1,300,000 after it lost two contracts following the incident, has complied with a notice from Cyngor Gwynedd to improve safety.

Mr Parry, 63, of Gerddi Menai, Bangor Road, Caernarfon, has accepted a caution over the incident.

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