Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110
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Recycling company fined after worker crushed to death
A Liverpool recycling company has been sentenced after employee Paul Andrews, was fatally crushed by falling waste plastic bales.
Liverpool Crown Court heard how, in May 2017, waste plastic bales had been delivered to Centriforce Products' site at Derby Road, Liverpool and were stacked as free-standing columns in a yard.
During the morning, a fork lift truck driver noticed one of the columns consisting of bales, stacked three high, had partially collapsed, obstructing his path. He subsequently used the fork lift truck to straighten and stabilise the stack before continuing on his way.
Some hours later Paul Andrews - a married father of two daughters, was working in the immediate vicinity of the stack when it toppled, with the middle and top bales, weighing over 500 kg, falling and crushing him. The scene of the collapse was not discovered until nearly an hour later when efforts to revive Paul failed.
An investigation by the Health & Safety Executive found Centriforce Products had failed to store waste plastic bales securely in such a way as to prevent the risk of collapse. The company had also failed to carry out a suitable assessment which would have identified risks to the safety of employees located within the danger zone of unstable stacks.
It pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 (1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and has been fined £120,000 and ordered to pay costs of £10,540.95.
Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Rohan Lye said: "This appalling incident could so easily have been prevented if Paul's employer had acted to identify and manage the risks involved, and put a safe system of work in place. Their failure to do so has left Claire without her husband and two daughters without their father."
"Employers should make sure they properly assess and apply effective control measures to minimise the risk from dangerous work activities and prevent future tragedies."
16th May 2019