£1m fine for company after employee fell 11 metres onto concrete

Logistics company DP World Southampton has been fined £1 million after an employee fell 11 metres onto a concrete floor, suffering life-changing injuries.

Christopher Hooper (31) was an employee of Southampton Container Terminals Limited, trading as DP World Southampton. On 20 September 2022, he was carrying out routine maintenance work at the company’s Western Avenue site.

Mr Hooper was atop a straddle carrier, which is used for stacking and moving shipping containers. Unaware of an open hole in the driver’s cab where a glass floor should have been, he fell 11 metres to the concrete floor below. The fall fractured his skull, back, pelvis, arm, wrist and ankle.

Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Inspectors found Southampton Container Terminals Limited had failed to ensure there was a system of work to ensure glass floor replacement and routine maintenance work could be carried out safely at the same time.

The company also failed to ensure there was a risk assessment in place. Southampton Container Terminals Limited had a policy for permits to work whilst working at height but failed to implement it. 

Mr Hooper had worked for Southampton Container Terminals Limited since he was 17 years old. In his victim personal statement, he said:

“I feel like a puppet in my life who is being moved from therapy to therapy with no control over where I am going. It feels like my life is in a waiting room, early out of hospital I had closer milestones that felt achievable whereas now no one can tell me what I can do next and that is really impacting my day-to-day life as I don’t know what the rest of my life will look like.”

Appearing at Southampton Magistrates’ Court on 2 August 2024, Southampton Container Terminals Limited pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The company was fined £1 million and ordered to pay £11,664.59 in costs.

HSE Inspector Francesca Arnold commented after the hearing:

“This incident has resulted in severe life-changing injuries for Mr Hooper, who is lucky to be alive. His life has completely changed because of Southampton Container Terminals Limited’s failure to produce a suitable risk assessment and implement straightforward control measures.

“The hazards of working at height are well known and documented and this prosecution should now remind employers that a failure to manage and implement effective measures can have serious consequences and they will be held accountable for this failure. Information on working at height safely is freely available on HSE’s website.”

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