Silver Street Service Garage Ltd admitted breaching health and safety laws over an incident which left a man with serious “life changing” injuries

Aftermath of the incident at Silver Street Garage in Edmonton (credit HSE) — Aftermath of the incident at Silver Street Service Garage in Edmonton (credit HSE)

An Edmonton vehicle repairs garage has been fined £12,000 after one of its customers was crushed by his own car.

Mahmut Emanet is “lucky to be alive” according to an inspector from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which investigated the incident at Silver Street Service Garage on 15th August 2022.

Mahmut, aged 62 and from Tottenham, had taken his company vehicle to be serviced at the mechanics in College Close. The company director, Seyit Dilek, left him standing under the vehicle while it was raised on a vehicle lift. As Dilek walked away, the car fell off the lift and on to Mahmut.

Mahmut subsequently spent six days in a critical care unit being treated for the serious crush injuries he received from the incident. He has been left with permanent and life-changing injuries.

The HSE investigation found that Silver Street Service Garage Ltd failed to ensure that members of the public were not exposed to health and safety risks. The company also failed to ensure that the equipment had been thoroughly examined for any defects.

Dilek was in control of the garage at the time of the incident and was directly responsible for the way work was conducted and access was managed on site. He failed to ensure that members of the public were not exposed to health and safety risks.

Silver Street Service Garage Ltd, of College Close, pleaded guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and guilty to a contravention of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998.

The company was fined £12,000 and was also ordered to pay £2,406 costs at a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court last Thursday (7th).

At the same hearing, Seyit Dilek of Waltham Abbey pleaded guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act and was fined £500 and ordered to pay £1,500 costs.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Michelle Morphy said: “Mr Emanet is lucky to be alive. This incident could have been avoided if he had simply been asked to stay in the waiting area provided for members of the public.

“Instead, not only was he left to move freely around the two-post vehicle lift on which his vehicle was raised, he was asked by a director of the business to assist with the work being carried out, in the minutes before it fell.”

HSE reports that in total, 24 workers in the motor vehicle repair industry have been killed in work-related accidents over the last five years, with the fatal injury rate around five times the average rate across all industries. Recent research suggests that over half of all fatal injuries in the sector were caused by work under a poorly supported vehicle.

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