Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110
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Recycling company prosecuted after worker's foot is crushed
A recycling company has been fined after a teenager with a promising career in motocross had his foot broken by a 16-tonne machine. The Health & Safety Executive prosecuted Countryside Recycling of Lenham, Maidstone, for failing to operate a safe system at working at its site in Folkestone, Kent.
Maidstone Magistrates' Court heard earlier this month that in February 2010, Daniel Brown, 19, was sorting waste at the recycling plant in Park Farm Close when a tyre of a 16-tonne shovel ran over his right foot.
Mr Brown broke 16 bones in his foot and is still suffering with pain and arthritis. He has had to give up a possible career in Motocross, having won races at national level and negotiated a potential sponsorship package. He cannot learn to drive and acquire his car licence and has not been able to return to work.
The HSE investigation found there was no system in operation to ensure moving vehicles and pedestrians were segregated. Employees were simply told verbally to stay clear of manoeuvring vehicles.
An Improvement Notice was issued by HSE at an early stage of the investigation to segregate vehicles and pedestrians.
At the time of the incident it was raining and the windscreen wipers on the shovel were not working. The heater in the cab was broken so the windows tended to steam up, reducing visbility. The shovel also had a broken wing mirror, no reversing lights, no reversing CCTV or convex mirror and wouldn't always go into gear. Moreover, a screwdriver was used to start it and the roof beacon and lights would regularly blow bulbs!
After the prosecution, HSE's inspector Stephen Green said:
"The injured worker was lucky not to be killed as a result of this incident, which could have easily been avoided if the long list of failures with this vehicle and systems had been addressed earlier.
"HSE has plenty of helpful guidance that could have been followed, and if the company had implemented a safe system of work, segregating moving vehicles from pedestrians, then a young man wouldn't have broken a bone for every tonne of weight that rolled over his foot - 16 in total.
"There is no excuse for not having a safe system of work in place."
Countrystyle Recycling of Ashford Road, Lenham, Maidstone, Kent, pleaded guilty to breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 in relation to the incident. The firm was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £6,221 in costs.
3rd May 2012