Firm fined £8,000 after worker hit by bus Operator: Abba
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Scrap Metals Matter: Health and safety regulations Hearing: Merthyr Tydfil Magistrates' Court ABBA SCRAP METALS has been fined £8,000 after an employee was badly injured when a bus swung into him while it was being lifted onto a truck in Merthyr Tydfil.
In a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecution, Merthyr Tydfil Magistrates' Court was told that workers at the company had been at the Penygarnddu Industrial Estate in December 2011 loading a 3.5-tonne single-decker bus onto a low-loader truck, after salvaging parts from it, so that it could be taken to a scrapyard to be crushed.
They had planned to use an excavator to lift the front of the bus and a forklift truck to lift the rear, so the low-loader could then reverse under it.
As they lifted the front of the bus, using two chains attached to the grab on the excavator, it swung outwards and struck 49-year-old worker Clifford Evans.
He was momentarily pinned against a wall before the bus swung back again. He suffered fractures to his pelvis and ribs.
The court was told the work had been badly planned and none of the workers involved had received training on lifting vehicles using chains. Also, the bus could have been lifted by simply using the grab on the excavator, but the company overcomplicated it by using two vehicles and not positioning the chains safely.
Abba Scrap Metals was ordered to pay £8,912 in costs after admitting a breach of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998.
Summing up The firm should not have allowed the worker to stand in a position where he was at risk of being hit by the bus.