Recycling firm prosecuted over Preston worker's injuries

Date:

13 October 2010

Release No:

HSE/NW/053

A recycling company has appeared in court after one of its workers suffered broken ribs when he was forced onto a metal conveyor belt in Preston.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Smurfit Kappa UK Ltd following the injury at its warehouse on Campbell Street in the city on 4 September 2009.

The warehouse in Preston where the worker was injured

The 60-year-old employee from Preston, who declined to be named, was pushing waste cardboard onto the conveyor belt when he was forced onto it by a reversing van.

The company was fined £5,000 after pleading guilty to a health and safety offence at Preston Magistrates' Court on 13 October. The court heard that the company should have made sure pedestrians were kept away from moving vehicles by providing barriers or marked areas.

Smurfit Kappa, of Water Street, Pier Head, Liverpool, was charged with breaching Regulation 17 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 by failing to allow pedestrians and vehicles to work or move safely. The company was also ordered to pay £4,204 costs.

Imran Siddiqui, the investigating inspector at HSE, said:

"One of Smurfit's employees suffered broken ribs as a result of the company's failings. But if he had been hit harder by the vehicle, or forced into the machine which baled the cardboard, then his injuries may have been a lot more severe.

"The company failed to control the movement of vehicles in the warehouse, despite waste materials regularly being delivered to the site. There should also have been a segregated area for pedestrians so there was no chance of anyone being injured by reversing vans."

There are an average of 61 deaths and more than 6,000 serious injuries each year caused by vehicles in workplaces. Information on improving safety is available at www.hse.gov.uk/workplacetransport.

Notes to editors

1. Regulation 17 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 states: "Every workplace shall be organised in such a way that pedestrians and vehicles can circulate in a safe manner."
2. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk

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