Waste firm in court over Blackburn worker's fall

Date:

29 November 2011

Release No:

HSE/NW/38Neales

A waste collection firm has appeared in court after poor safety measures led to a worker falling from the top of a truck in Blackburn.

Neales Waste Management Ltd was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after a 44-year-old employee fell four metres to the ground while trying to remove waste that had become stuck on the roof of a collection vehicle.

The vehicle from which the worker fell

Blackburn Magistrates' Court heard the worker from Blackburn, who has asked not to be named, had been helping to empty a skip at Walker Industrial Park in Guide, Blackburn, on 7 September 2010 when the incident happened.

The employee climbed up some metal bars on the truck to reach the stuck waste and fell when the access fixings gave way. He suffered a broken right elbow and damage to his left foot.

The HSE investigation found the company, which handles more than 270 tonnes of waste every year, had allowed workers to use the metal bars to reach the top of the vehicle, despite them not being designed for this purpose.

The court was told waste often became stuck on the roofs of vehicles while the contents of overfilled skips were being emptied. But the firm did not have an acceptable health and safety procedure in place for removing the stuck waste.

Neales Waste Management Ltd admitted breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 by failing to ensure the safety of employees. The company, of Walker Road in Guide, Blackburn, was fined £15,000 and ordered to pay £11,661 in prosecution costs on 29 November 2011.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Imran Siddiqui said:

"The employee at Neales was lucky he wasn't more seriously injured in the fall. He could easily have suffered life-changing injuries as a result.

"Unfortunately, the company wrongly assumed the metal bars on the front of the vehicle could be used as a ladder to climb up to the roof. They were not designed to be used in this way and Neales should not have allowed this practice to continue.

"Instead it should have provided an alternative way for waste to be safely removed."

Last year, more than 150 workers suffered major injuries in the recycling industry in Great Britain and one was killed. Information on improving safety is available at www.hse.gov.uk/waste.

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. Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 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."

Press enquiries

Regional reporters should call the appropriate Regional News Network press office.

Issued on behalf of HSE by COI News & PR North West