Quarry firm fined after worker plunge in 30-tonne wheel loader

Date:

28 July 2010

Release No:

YH/194/10

A quarry operator was today fined £30,000 after a 30-tonne wheel loader vehicle overturned and slid almost 16ft down a sand stockpile.

Humberside Aggregates and Excavations Ltd, of Newport Road, North Cave, East Yorkshire, was also ordered to pay £10,590 in costs after pleading guilty to three separate breaches of Quarries Regulations 1999 in the prosecution brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

The wheel loader after the incident

Beverly Magistrates Court heard that an employee, who does not wish to be identified, was being trained as a wheel loader operator at North Cave Quarry, Humberside Aggregates and Excavations Ltd's sand and gravel extraction and processing facility.

On 30 October 2009, he was transporting sand from a stockpile when the access ramp edge he was driving on gave way, which caused the machine to overturn and plunge almost 16ft because there were no edge protection barriers in place. The trainee lost consciousness, suffered concussion and was hospitalised for two days.

The Health and Safety Executive prosecuted Humberside Aggregates and Excavations for failing to assess, identify and minimise potential risk, and for ultimately failing to protect the worker.

Following the hearing HSE inspector Richard Noble said:

"This accident could have been avoided had sufficient edge protection been put in place at minimal cost, which has been the standard within the quarrying industry for many years.

"Quarrying remains one of the most dangerous industries to work in. Since 2000 more than 3,000 workers have suffered an injury reportable to HSE and 24 people have been killed. Workplace transport is the industries biggest cause of fatal accidents within the industry, and that is why the industry and HSE work together in a joint advisory committee to introduce good practices for quarry operators.

"We are working very hard to reduce these accidents and fatalities. HSE produce much guidance on how to avoid them, so the reasons why this accident occurred are inexcusable."

For further information on quarry safety go to www.hse.gov.uk/quarries

Notes to editors

1. 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
2. Regulation 6 (1) of the Quarries Regulations 1999 states that: "It shall be the duty of the operator of every quarry to take the necessary measures to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the quarry and its plant are designed, constructed, equipped, commissioned, operated and maintained in such a way that persons at work can perform the work assigned to them without endangering their own health and safety or the health and safety of others."
3. Regulation 12 (a) of the Quarries Regulations 1999 states that: "The operator shall - prepare and keep up to date a suitable written scheme for the systematic inspection, maintenance and, where appropriate, testing of - all parts of the quarry, all buildings (whether temporary or permanent) at the quarry, and any plant at the quarry with a view to securing the health and safety of those persons identified in regulation."
4. Regulation 13(b) of the Quarries Regulations 1999 states that "The operator shall ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that - where necessary, effective precautions are taken, by the installation of barriers or otherwise, to prevent vehicles or plant accidentally leaving any bench or haul road"
5. Further HSE information and news releases can be found online at www.hse.gov.uk

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