Crushed at Work by a Reversing Vehicle: A Burnley Firm Fined – and What Workers Need to Know
By Chris Carter, Managing Solicitor — Carter & Carter Solicitors | March 2026
QUICK ANSWER
Can you claim compensation if a vehicle hit you at work?
If a vehicle hit you at work, you may have a strong claim — but the key question is whether your employer failed their duty to keep you safe.
Workers injured by vehicles in the workplace are protected under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Your employer has a legal duty to keep vehicles and pedestrians properly separated. Where they’ve failed to do that and someone is hurt, the employer is liable. Most of the time, that’s exactly what we find.
Compensation is assessed individually based on the severity and permanence of your injuries and your financial losses. Most claims resolve in 4 to 8 months on a No Win No Fee basis.
He was standing against a wall doing his job. A reversing vehicle — one he couldn’t control and couldn’t escape from — crushed him against it. The result: multiple fractures, nerve damage to his arm, partial hearing loss, and permanent sight loss in one eye.
This didn’t happen because of a momentary lapse in concentration. It happened because his employer put him in a yard where vehicles and people shared the same space, with nothing to keep them apart. No segregation. No safe refuge. Nothing.
The Health and Safety Executive prosecuted. The firm pleaded guilty. And at Blackburn Magistrates’ Court on 11 March 2026, a judge fined the company £24,000 plus nearly £5,000 in costs. If you’ve been injured in a similar way — a reversing vehicle, a forklift, a lorry in a yard — this post explains exactly where you stand.
What Happened at This Burnley Waste Site?
In March 2024, a young employee at a waste and recycling firm in Burnley was working in the company’s yard alongside three colleagues. Their job that day was to sort and separate waste material by hand. At the same time, a colleague was operating a telehandler — a large, heavy vehicle used for lifting and moving materials — in the same yard.
The worker was standing at the side of the yard when the telehandler reversed towards him. He had nowhere to go. He was pinned against a brick wall.
His injuries were severe. Multiple bone fractures. Nerve damage to his right arm. Internal organ injuries. Partial hearing loss in his right ear. A blood clot that caused permanent damage to his right eye, leaving him with lasting sight loss. These weren’t soft tissue injuries that would heal in weeks — they were life-altering.
WHAT THE HSE INVESTIGATION FOUND
The Health and Safety Executive investigated and found that the employer had failed to implement basic workplace transport controls. There was no separation between vehicles and the workers on foot. There were no designated safe areas for employees to stand while vehicles were moving.
HSE inspector Anthony Banks said after the hearing: “This young man’s injuries could so easily have been avoided with the implementation of safe working practices, including pedestrian and vehicle segregation and safe refuges for workers whilst vehicles were operating.”
The firm pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 — the provision that requires every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of their employees.
Source: Health and Safety Executive Media Centre — prosecution announcement, 13 March 2026
What Does the Law Actually Require Employers to Do About Vehicles in the Workplace?
This isn’t a grey area. Workplace transport safety has clear, well-established rules. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 requires employers to provide safe systems of work and a safe working environment. For any workplace where vehicles operate — depots, yards, warehouses, construction sites, farms — that means a proper risk assessment and meaningful separation between moving vehicles and people on foot.
HSE guidance is explicit: employers must plan safe routes for vehicles and pedestrians, use physical barriers and markings to keep them apart, provide designated safe areas where workers can stand when vehicles are moving, and ensure drivers have clear visibility of anyone in their path. These aren’t optional best practices. They are minimum requirements.
When an employer puts workers and vehicles in the same space without those controls — as happened here — and someone is hurt, they have failed their legal duty. Full stop.
From the File
When your employer pleads guilty in court, that guilty plea can be used as evidence in your compensation claim.
Most people don’t realise this: when the HSE prosecutes an employer and the employer pleads guilty — as happened here at Blackburn Magistrates’ Court — that criminal guilty plea is admissible evidence in your separate civil compensation claim. You are not starting from scratch trying to prove your employer was at fault. The court has already established that they were.
This matters enormously in practice. Insurers know that fighting a compensation claim after a criminal guilty plea is extremely difficult — they’re essentially arguing against their own client’s admission. What we see consistently in these situations is insurers moving towards settlement far sooner, and at higher values, than in cases where fault is contested from the start.
If the HSE has prosecuted your employer, that is not just a news story. It is some of the most valuable evidence your solicitor could have going into your claim.
Can You Claim Compensation If a Vehicle Hit You at Work?
Yes — and this applies whether you drive a vehicle yourself, operate machinery, sort materials on foot, or work in any environment where vehicles move near people. The question is not “was I in the wrong place?” It is “did my employer take all reasonably practicable steps to keep me safe?” In the vast majority of workplace vehicle accidents, the answer is no.
If you’re reading this having already reported your accident — good. Report it, see a doctor, and preserve every piece of evidence you can. If the accident happened some time ago and you didn’t report it at the time, don’t assume that rules you out. Speak to us first. What matters is what happened, who is responsible, and how your injuries — physical and financial — have affected your life. All of that can be worked through with the right legal support.
Carter & Carter handle workplace accident claims for people across Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Derbyshire, and the surrounding areas — personally, not via a call centre. If you’re not sure whether you have a claim, call us. The conversation is free and there’s no pressure.
YOUR RIGHTS
If a vehicle injured you at work, you have the right to:
✔ Claim compensation for your injuries, pain, and suffering
✔ Recover financial losses — lost earnings, treatment costs, care costs
✔ Make your claim without risking your job (dismissal in retaliation is automatically unfair)
✔ Pursue your claim on a No Win No Fee basis — with no upfront costs and nothing to pay if your claim doesn’t succeed
OUR FEE — WHAT YOU ACTUALLY PAY
Most firms charge 25% of your compensation. The maximum allowed. Whether your claim took five hours or fifty. Whether it settled in weeks or dragged on for years. Same percentage.
We’ve never thought that was fair.
10%
Carter & Carter
when settled without court proceedings
25%
Most firms
regardless of work done or time taken
Less work for us. Lower fee for you. That’s how it should be.
TIME LIMIT — DON’T WAIT
Workplace injury claims must generally be brought within three years of the date of the accident under the Limitation Act 1980. But don’t use the three-year window as a reason to delay. Evidence gets harder to obtain with time. CCTV is often overwritten within days or weeks. Witnesses’ memories fade.
If it happened recently — even if it was months ago — the best time to get advice is now.
“These are some of the clearest-cut claims we deal with. When an employer mixes moving vehicles with workers on foot and calls it safe, they’ve failed their fundamental duty — and the law makes no allowances for it.”
— Chris Carter, Managing Solicitor, Carter & Carter Solicitors
COMPENSATION — WHAT ARE WORKPLACE VEHICLE INJURIES WORTH?
Compensation depends on the severity of your injuries and your financial losses. The Judicial College Guidelines set out the ranges courts use when assessing injury values. For workplace vehicle accidents, figures vary significantly based on what was hurt and how permanently.
Physical injuries: Assessed individually based on severity, permanence, and impact on daily life and work — the more lasting the effect, the higher the award
Permanent impairment: Where injuries leave lasting consequences — reduced mobility, sensory loss, or long-term functional limitation — courts award significantly more to reflect a lifetime of impact
Plus: all financial losses — lost earnings, treatment costs, care, travel, and any adaptations required at home or work
RELATED GUIDES FROM CARTER & CARTER
Accident at Work Claims — the complete guide
How much compensation can you claim for an accident at work?
Forklift truck and industrial vehicle accident claims
Your employer’s duty of care — what it means in practice
Were You Hit by a Vehicle at Work?
Talk to Chris or David today. We handle every claim personally — no hand-offs, no junior handlers. The call is free and there’s no obligation.
No Win No Fee · No upfront costs · You deal with us, not a call centre
About the Author
Chris Carter — Managing Solicitor
Chris Carter founded Carter & Carter Solicitors in 2007 and has spent nearly thirty years helping people injured at work and in public places claim the compensation they deserve. He handles every workplace accident claim personally alongside Senior Solicitor David Healey — because people who’ve been seriously hurt deserve a solicitor, not a case handler.