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Home> | Handling & Storing | >General Handling | >Biffa fined £2.5M after fatal crushing incident |
Biffa fined £2.5M after fatal crushing incident
19 October 2025
A WASTE management company has been fined £2.48 million after a worker was run over by a reversing skip wagon at a waste transfer station in Bradford.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Biffa Waste Services Ltd failed to effectively review and monitor the control measures in place to protect pedestrians and keep them separate from vehicle movements.
CCTV footage from the week before the incident showed that it was common practice for people on site to bypass segregated pedestrian routes, with some seen climbing over barriers that were intended to keep them safe.
By law, employers must ensure traffic routes can be used without putting workers at risk. Guidance on managing vehicle movements in the workplace is available at Transport movements – HSE.
Biffa Waste Services Ltd, of Coronation Road, Cressex, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 5(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. The company was fined £2.48 million and ordered to pay full costs of £5,768 at Leeds Magistrates’ Court on 15 October 2025.
Following the hearing, HSE inspector Elliot Archer said: “This incident was easily avoidable. Control measures were in place to allow pedestrians and vehicles to move safely, but a lack of monitoring and supervision allowed poor working practices to develop between the workers on site.
“Our investigation found a casual attitude to health and safety with workers treating a high hazard site like a playground.
“Nearly a quarter of all deaths involving workplace transport occur during reversing manoeuvres.
“This tragic incident should be a reminder to the waste industry not to become complacent with the risks workplace transport poses, and that even where control measures are in place to segregate pedestrians and vehicles, robust monitoring and supervision of their correct usage need to be in place.”
The prosecution was brought by HSE enforcement lawyer Arfaq Nabi and paralegal officer Melissa Wardle.
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