A Stockton-based waste recycling company has today been fined after a worker was injured following a workplace transport accident in September 2016.
Teesside Magistrates’ Court heard how, on 30 September 2016, the employee of Skippy Waste Services Ltd was walking along the roadway between the warehouse and sorting shed when he was run over by a reversing telehandler. This resulted in the employee sustaining multiple fractures including four breaks to his left leg.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that measures in place to protect employees on foot from the risks associated with moving vehicles were inadequate. In particular, there was a lack of physical measures, like pedestrian walkways, while the management arrangements in place were not sufficient to control vehicle movements.
“This incident could so easily have resulted in yet another death and could have been prevented by the company implementing simple measures, such as the pedestrian walkways which it put in place afterwards.”
Skippy Waste Services Ltd of Yarm Road, Stockton on Tees, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and was fined £35,000 and ordered to pay £1,852.76 in costs.
After the hearing, HSE inspector Chris Lucas said: “The fatal injury rate in the waste industry is around 15 times greater than the all industry average and the biggest cause is workplace transport.
“This incident could so easily have resulted in yet another death and could have been prevented by the company implementing simple measures, such as the pedestrian walkways which it put in place afterwards.
“This should serve as a lesson to others in the waste industry about how they should effectively control workplace transport risks to prevent others seriously-injured or killed.”