Buckinghamshire company fined £280,000 following death

Date:

19 April 2010

Release No:

COISE/1904

A Buckinghamshire-based waste disposal company has been fined after a member of the public was crushed to death at the Civic Amenity site in Newbury.

The prosecution followed a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation into Biffa Waste Services Ltd after the death of Dennis Krauesslar, at its waste disposal site on Pinchington Lane, Newbury on 10 September 2007.

Mr Krauesslar, from Bartlemy Close in Newbury, was crushed to death by a motorised loading shovel bucket used to flatten and drag the waste away from the tipping area.

At the time of the incident, the site had a covered pit into which members of the public disposed of their waste. As the 57-year-old Mr Krauesslar was tipping his garden waste into the pit, he was fatally injured after the bucket of the loading shovel struck him.

The Civic Amenity site is now closed.

At a West Berkshire Magistrates court hearing in February, Biffa Waste Services Limited of Coronation Road, Cressex in High Wycombe pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 by failing to ensure that the garden waste tipping area was safe for members of the public to use.

The company also pleaded guilty to contravening Regulation 3(1)(b) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 by failing to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment of the garden waste tipping area of the site to ensure people other than employees were suitably protected.

At Reading Crown Court today (19 April), Biffa Waste Services Limited was fined £280,000 and ordered to pay full costs of £54,906.57.

Speaking after today's sentencing HSE's Head of Operations for the South East, Mike Wilcock said:

"This tragic incident could have been avoided if sensible precautions and working practices had been in place to prevent the loading shovel working in such close proximity to members of the public.

"Companies operating such sites must carefully assess their arrangements to ensure that they keep vehicles and pedestrians separate whenever possible."

Notes to editors

1. Section 3 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 states: "It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety".
2. Section 33(1)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 states "It is an offence for a person to fail to discharge a duty to which he is subject by virtue of sections 2 to 7".
3. Regulation 3(1)(b) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 states: "Every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the health and safety of persons not in his employment arising out of or in connection with the conduct by him of his undertaking".
4. HSE information and news releases can be accessed on the Internet http://www.hse.gov.uk

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Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by COI News & PR South East