Skip firm fined after death of worker

A skip company has been fined for safety breaches at its West Bromwich site where an employee was killed when run over by a 13-tonne shovel loader.

Need a Skip Ltd has been prosecuted at Wolverhampton Crown Court. The charge is one of failing to ensure the safe segregation of workers and vehicles on the site. Because of that, a 24-year-old worker died of his injuries after being hit by a loader while crouching over a manhole cleaning a drain pump.

HSE inspector Karl Raw commented:

"Transport is one of the biggest causes of death and injury within the workplace, especially where the machinery in use is large. For this reason it is imperative that where people and machinery need to work in close proximity the employer ensures, wherever possible, that measures are implemented to segregate them or put in place suitable and effective measures to ensure safety of their employees.

The ad hoc approach by Need a Skip to its on-site activities, combined with heavy machinery moving around, meant there was a high potential for an incident to occur."

Unfortunately a traffic management plan was not in place at the premises at the time of the accident. If you feel that you need training in preparing atraffic plan or require your operatives to be trained as traffic marshalls please contact us for details of course content, costs and dates.

Source: HSE