A wood recycling company has been sentenced for ‘serious safety failings’ and ordered to pay £234,000 following an incident in which one of its employees was run over and killed.

UK Wood Recycling Ltd, a Middlesborough-based subsidiary of Hadfield Wood Recyclers of Lumb Farm in Droylsden, Manchester, was prosecuted at Teesside Crown Court yesterday (12 November) after an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the company had failed to put appropriate segregation measures in place for vehicles and pedestrians.

The case relates to the death of Raymond Thomas Burns, 43, of Eston, who worked as a load inspector for UK Wood Recycling Ltd at its site in Wilton, Redcar.

The court heard that on 19 December 2008, Burns was walking between a wood pile and a skip in the yard when he was hit and run over by a load shovel, which was moving material from one part of the site to another. Burns died of his injuries at the scene.

Following an investigation by HSE officers, it was found that as there were no ‘segregation measures’ in place, workers were ‘unprotected from the dangers of constantly moving vehicles – despite previous incidents where vehicles had collided, and workers reporting other near misses’.

As such, UK Wood Recycling pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 17(1) by virtue of Regulation 4(1) of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 – which states that ‘every workplace shall be organised in such a way that pedestrians and vehicles can circulate in a safe manner’ – and was fined £200,000 and ordered to pay a further £34,000 in costs.

Death was ‘entirely preventable’

Speaking after the case, HSE Inspector Bruno Porter said: “A conscientious and hard-working man has lost his life in this senseless way. There was simply an acceptance by UK Wood Recycling Ltd of the established working pattern. Solely relying on drivers or workers noticing each other is not adequate control.

“This was an entirely preventable death caused by the company failing to have a system to allow vehicles and pedestrians to move safely around each other. Ideally, this segregation is achieved by the vehicles and pedestrians having separate traffic routes. If they share a route or area then physical barriers should be used to keep them apart, or other means of preventing moving vehicles and people being in the same place at the same time.”

Waste industry fatalities rising

The number of people killed in the waste and recycling sector has been a growing cause of concern, after figures released earlier this year (and confirmed in the 2012/13 annual statistics) showed that there were almost double the number of fatalities between April 2012 and March 2013 as there were the year before.

However, provisional ‘Health and Safety statistics 2012/13’, released last month, found that the number of those injured whilst working in the waste sector has fallen by 23 per cent.

Porter added: “The waste industry has a very high injury rate, and most of the fatal and major injuries relate to transport issues. The risks of serious injury and, all too frequently, death, resulting from the failure to control the safe movement of vehicles and pedestrians are widely recognised.”

To curb the number of incidents occurring at waste sites, the HSE has published the ‘Waste Industry Safety and Health (WISH) blueprint 2013-15’, which outlines 24 ‘immediate action points’ that need to be taken to provide clearer training and safer workplaces.

Find out more about workplace transport safety or read the WISH Blueprint.