Firm prosecuted after worker is crushed by machinery

Date:

24 November 2011

A Pontllanfraith company has been prosecuted after the fatal crushing of an employee under heavy machinery at its Newbridge Road Industrial Estate site.

Gareth Young, a 60-year-old grandfather from Beaufort in Ebbw Vale, was working at Moulded Paper Ltd on 4 August 2009, when an unsecured electrical control cabinet weighing just over half a tonne, fell on him, resulting in fatal injuries.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that Mr Young was in the process of removing sheet steel from the disused cabinet for re-use. The cabinet had been propped up against a wall and was unsecured after being left behind by machinery removal men who had visited the factory some months earlier.

Cardiff Crown Court heard that, during Mr Young's efforts to remove the sheet steel, the cabinet slid away from the wall, crushing him underneath.

The HSE found that IMCO Limited, trading as Moulded Paper Ltd, had failed to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of its employees, including Gareth Young.

IMCO Limited of Newbridge Road Industrial Estate, Blackwood, has now gone into liquidation. In their absence, the firm was found guilty of breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. Judge Christopher Llewellyn-Jones QC handed down a fine of £5,000, but told the court that the fine should not reflect the seriousness with which he viewed the matter. The judge awarded costs of £36,571.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector, Trevor Hay said:

"This was a tragic death that could have so easily been prevented. This fatality shows the importance of carrying out thorough risk assessments of the working environment, especially following any major changes.

"A competent risk assessment would have revealed the instability of the electrical control cabinet that fell on Mr. Young and the need for it to be secured to prevent it from falling."

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."
3. HSE news releases are available at www.hse.gov.uk/press.

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Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by COI News and PR Wales