Recycling firm fined after worker crushed to death

An Ystrad Mynach recycling firm has been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after a yard foreman was crushed to death.

56 year-old Norman Mayne from Newport died after he became trapped between a container and a skip at Amber Services Ltd’s recycling yard at Dyffryn Business Park on 25 June 2008.

Cardiff Crown Court heard that Mr Mayne was carrying out one of his regular duties of locating suitable skips, when he became trapped between a stationary skip and a container that a colleague was loading onto a vehicle that had been reversed in to the yard.

An investigation by the HSE found that the company had failed to ensure the safety of its employees because an effective system to permit the safe movement of pedestrians and vehicles was not in place.

HSE inspector Clare Owen said: “The death of Mr Mayne could have been prevented if a few simple measures had been put in place.

“There was no effective system for managing vehicle and pedestrian movements on site, and skip storage was disorganised. If a clearly defined system to control vehicles was in place and the site was kept in an orderly condition, the likelihood of such an incident occurring would be dramatically reduced. It is particularly important, wherever a driver has no view of his ‘blind spot’ during reversing and loading and unloading operations, that the activity is managed and controlled.”

Amber Engineering Limited (trading as Amber Services), of the Recycling Centre Dyffryn Business Park, Ystrad Mynach, Hengoed, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

The company was fined £112,000 and ordered to pay costs of £36,000.

Advice and guidance on managing workplace transport safely can be found at www.hse.gov.uk/workplacetransport/index.htm