Incident Summary:

Date: 17th April 2026

Location: Charnwood

Incident type: Struck by (Bales)

Initial notification is that a member of the public was struck by a falling bale. She later died in hospital.

Key Safety Messages:

Anyone involved in handling bales should have the right level of knowledge and skill to work safely. This means the ability to know how and where to build safe stacks, how to assess the condition of stacks and how to de-stack safely.
Keep all people out of the work area when building stacks, de-stacking or loading/unloading vehicles.
Big square bales can weigh up to 600kg. They should not be manually handled large bales should be handled using mechanical lifting equipment with suitable well maintained lifting attachments.
Persons operating telehandlers should be trained and competent.
Where there is risk of injury from falling loads, lifting equipment such as telehandlers should be subject to thorough examination as required by Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER)
Making sure stacks remain safe goes beyond the initial build; conditions change and stacks should be monitored to make sure they remain stable, especially as bales are being removed from the stack.

Guidance can be found in the HSE’s free leaflet: