A delivery gone wrong has ended in life-changing injuries and a £230,000 fine — and the lesson for contractors is uncomfortably familiar: unusual lifts still need planning, whoever happens to be doing them on the day.
What happened
According to the HSE Media Centre, Smith & Nephew Medical Ltd was sentenced on 14 September 2026 at Hull Crown Court after a 64-year-old worker, Mr Dubey — an employee of Nippon Express (UK) Ltd — was seriously injured when a crate weighing roughly 1.2 tonnes fell from a forklift truck.
The incident happened on 22 December 2020. Mr Dubey was delivering a large crate containing an electron microscope to the Smith & Nephew site. Nippon Express had originally intended to provide its own forklift and driver, but because of COVID-19 restrictions the site sought to reduce the number of people on site and took on the unloading itself.
The HSE investigation found the task was not properly assessed, planned or supervised. There was no assessment of whether the company's two-tonne forklift was suitable for the characteristics of the load, no consideration of how the lift should be done, who should be involved or what precautions were needed. As a result, the source states, "Mr Dubey was positioned unsafely and the load was lifted in an unsafe manner, causing the crate to fall from the forklift truck and land on him".
Smith & Nephew Medical Ltd was found guilty of breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, fined £230,000 and ordered to pay £111,000 in costs.
Why it matters to contractors
The detail that should make every site manager sit up is this: the arrangements changed, but the risk didn't. HSE Inspector David Stewart said the safety requirements "did not change just because normal delivery arrangements at Smith & Nephew had changed, due to restrictions on third-party access during the COVID-19 pandemic".
Deliveries are one of those routine site activities that quietly become high-risk the moment something is out of the ordinary — an oversized crate, an unfamiliar driver, a load that doesn't sit neatly on the forks. When one party assumes the other has it covered, nobody plans the lift. That grey area between the delivery firm and the receiving site is exactly where this went wrong.
The inspector's summary is a clear steer for the whole industry: non-standard loads "require a risk assessment proportionate to the hazards, taking account of the nature of the load, the suitability of lifting equipment and the arrangements for execution and supervision."
What to check on your site
- Who unloads deliveries? Write it down. If your team unloads third-party vehicles — or third parties operate your plant — define exactly who does what.
- Is the forklift right for the load? Check capacity against the actual weight and dimensions, not a rough guess. A two-tonne truck is not automatically fit for a 1.2-tonne awkward crate.
- Non-standard loads get a plan. Anything unusual in weight, size or shape needs a proper lift plan and a competent person overseeing it.
- Positioning of people. Nobody should stand where a shifting load could reach them. Agree exclusion zones before the lift starts.
- Supervision is named, not assumed. Someone should be responsible for controlling and supervising the operation — and everyone should know who.
- Cover changed arrangements. If your normal process is disrupted, revisit the risk assessment. Don't let a workaround become an uncontrolled lift.
HSE guidance on planning and organising lifting operations underlines the point: lifts can put people at great risk when they go wrong, so they need to be properly resourced, planned and organised.
SafetyPod documents that help
Getting the paperwork in order won't lift a crate for you, but it forces the planning conversation before the forklift moves. A written risk assessment for lifting and unloading operations sets out the hazards, the equipment suitability and the controls. Pair it with a method statement from the RAMS & Permits library so the sequence, exclusion zones and named supervisor are agreed in writing.
If you run plant on site, a pre-use check from the Inspections & Checklists range keeps forklifts and attachments logged and fit for use. Not sure where to start? Our plain-English guide on what a RAMS is walks through what goes in one and when you need it.
These are editable templates you adapt to your own operation — they support your planning; they don't replace competent supervision or a proper lift assessment.
The takeaway
Routine deliveries stop being routine the moment the load, the equipment or the people change. Plan the lift, check the kit, name the supervisor — and never assume the other party has it covered.
Browse the full document library and get your lifting and unloading paperwork sorted before the next awkward delivery rolls up.