Using machinery for the job it was designed for and nothing else is incredibly important in order to ensure the health and safety of people at work.

Even machines and equipment which have been properly maintained can cause injury if they are misused and it is up to both employers and employees to make sure such guidance is not breached.

Forklift trucks are designed to transport equipment, products and large containers, not people and serious injury or death can result when people climb onto the forks.

This is exactly what happened in a case which has recently been brought for prosecution and resulted in the death of a worker.

The man in question suffered head injuries after falling from a metal container in which he was being lifted on a fork lift truck.

When the container became dislodged and fell off the vehicle he fell four metres onto a concrete floor, during a practice which was commonplace in the company in which he worked.

Repairs were being carried out on an overhead crane, but the method of transporting the man was not the correct way to lift a worker to do the job safely.

Tanya Stewart, principle inspector for the Health and Safety Executive, said: "He should never have been expected to stand in a metal stillage, balanced dangerously on the forks of a fork lift truck."

There are specific machines designed to get workers up to a height in order to carry out work if ladders will not reach and these should be used with proper training and in a safe manner.

The worker's widow spoke of feeling let down by the companies for which he was working and said that she hoped no other families would have to live with a hole in their lives similar to the one she experienced.

A total of £100,000 in fines was handed out to the two companies with one admitting two breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and being fined £90,000 and ordered to pay £21,411 in costs.

The other pleaded guilty to breaching the same act for failing to ensure the safety of its employee and was fined £10,000 with prosecution costs of £5,000.

More than 1.2 million workers are in danger of serious injury or death every year in the UK, because they have not had the proper training to work with fork lift trucks, according to the Fork Lift Truck Association.

Ms Stewart said: "It's disgraceful that the practice of lifting workers on fork lift trucks had taken place on many other occasions. Sadly, it was therefore almost inevitable that someone would be seriously injured or killed."