Firm fined £250,000 over fatal crushing
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A BRIDGEND recycling firm has been fined £250,000 after a 21-year-old worker was crushed to death when he was struck by a skip lorry on a weighbridge he was cleaning.
In a prosection brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Cardiff Crown Court was told that Geraint Eagle was cleaning sensors on the weighbridge at the waste site run by Nolan Recycling at The Old Quarry, Pyle, in December 2010.
Eagle — who had only worked at the site for six months — had been told to clean mud off the sensors on the weighbridge.
Because he had not done the job before, he worked alongside a more experienced worker who also looked out for traffic. However, after taking a break, he returned to work alone.
The skip truck drove onto the weighbridge where Eagle was lying down, chipping away at the hard mud. He picked up his tools and moved out of the way.
The driver briefly got out of his cab and went into the site office, returned and drove on, unaware that Eagle had returned to his work on the weighbridge.
The truck hit the young worker as he lay on the bridge, unseen by the driver.
Eagle, who suffered fatal head injuries and died at the scene, had been in the driver's blind spot when he returned to his work. The HSE investigation uncovered a series of failings by Nolan Recycling. It found the company had failed to: • appreciate the risks associated with the site; • give full instructions, guidance and training to staff; • monitor and supervise staff, particularly Eagle; • devise a transport policy to segregate people from vehicles; • provide a system of proper maintenance for equipment like the weighbridge;
• prepare a health and safety plan.
The investigation also found there was nothing to stop truck drivers driving on or off the weighbridge despite the maintenance work taking place.
A suitable risk assessment for the work would have identified the potential dangers of lorries mixing with pedestrians on the site.
Nolan Recycling pleaded guilty to a breach of Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
The company was also ordered to pay £53,100 in costs.
Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Sarah Baldwin Jones said: "This was a horrific incident with tragic consequences. There were multiple failings at the site, which should have been obvious and could easily have been addressed.
"There can be no excuse for companies in the waste industry not taking reasonable steps to safeguard their workers."
Summing up
Nolan Recycling should have closed the weighbridge while the work was taking place, had a clear written risk assessment for the maintenance work, and had policies in place to separate site workers from moving vehicles.