Waste transfer company fined £100,000 for site death

HSE press release E076:05 - 31 May 2005

A London-based waste transfer company, World's End Waste (Investments) Ltd, was fined £100,000 at the Old Bailey last Friday. The prosecution, brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), followed its investigation into the death of Sam Boothman at a waste transfer site at Pensbury Place, Wandsworth on 1 June 2004.

Mr Boothman, a 32-year-old tipper truck driver, was working for World's End Waste Ltd at their Wandsworth site. He had discharged his load at the transfer shed and had moved the truck to another part of the site to secure its tailgate, when he was hit from behind by the bucket of a shovel truck driven by another employee. He suffered severe multiple crushing injuries and died shortly after. World's End Waste Ltd pleaded guilty to a charge that they had failed to ensure the safety of their employees, including Mr Boothman, so far as reasonably practicable.

Speaking after the case, HSE Principal Inspector Margaret Pretty, said:

"Sam Boothman's family have lost a father, a husband and a son, and our sympathies are with them at this very sad time.

"The case shows everyone in the waste transfer industry the importance of planning for workplace transport and having safe systems of work in place. A one-way traffic system, the use of a banksman and designated pedestrian walkways, all of which were subsequently introduced by the company, may have prevented this fatality."

The presiding judge, His Honour Judge Focke QC, said:

"It is a very dangerous practice to drive a shovel truck, with the bucket raised a few feet off the ground, so that the driver's forward vision is obscured. The penalty should reflect public concern at an unnecessary loss of life. Companies must be deterred from operating in a slack way."

World's End Waste (Investments) Ltd of Stewart's Lane Industrial Estate, Silverthorne Road, London SW8 3HW, pleaded guilty to a charge of breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSWA) at the City Magistrates Court on 4 April 2005. They were sentenced at the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey on 27 May 2005 and fined £100,000 and ordered to pay £4,982 costs.

Notes to editors

1. Section 2(1) of the HSWA states: 'It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees'.

2. The maximum penalty that can be imposed at a Crown Court for a breach of section 2(1) of the HSWA is an unlimited fine.

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