Firm fined after worker crushed to death
Page 15
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
WELSH RECYCLING company Amber Services has been fined £112,000 after a yard foreman was crushed to death between a stationary skip and a container, which a colleague was loading onto a vehicle that had been reversed in to the yard.
In a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecution, Cardiff Crown Court was told how Norman Mayne, 56, from Newport, died after he became trapped between a container and a skip at the firm’s recycling yard at Dyffryn Business Park, Ystrad Mynach, in June 2008. Mayne was carrying out one of his regular duties of locating suitable skips, when he became trapped. Amber Services pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The company was also ordered to pay costs of £36,000.
Clare Owen, HSE inspector, says: “The death of Mr Mayne could have been prevented if a few simple measures had been put in place.
“There was no effective system for managing vehicle and pedestrian movements on site, and skip storage was disorganised.
“It is particularly important, wherever a driver has no view of his blindspot during reversing and loading and unloading operations, that the activity is managed and controlled.”