Skippy Waste Services pays £35,000 after employee hit by reversing truck

Commercial Motor
February 2, 2018

 

A Stockton-based waste recycling company been fined after a worker was injured in workplace transport accident in September 2016.

Teesside Magistrates’ Court heard  how the employee of Skippy Waste Services was walking along the roadway between the warehouse and sorting shed when he was run over by a reversing vehicle.

This resulted in the employee sustaining multiple fractures including four breaks to his left leg.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that measures in place to protect employees on foot from the risks associated with moving vehicles were inadequate. In particular, there was a lack of physical measures, such as pedestrian walkways, while the management arrangements in place were not sufficient to control vehicle movements.

Skippy Waste Services of Yarm Road, Stockton on Tees, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. It was fined £35,000 and ordered to pay £1,852.76 in costs.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Chris Lucas said: “The fatal injury rate in the waste industry is around 15 times greater than the industry average, and the biggest cause is workplace transport.

“This incident could so easily have resulted in yet another death and could have been prevented by the company implementing simple measures, such as the pedestrian walkways which it put in place afterwards.

"This should serve as a lesson to others in the waste industry about how they should effectively control workplace transport risks to prevent others seriously-injured or killed.”

About the Author

img

Commercial Motor

Commercialmotor.com is the online presence for Commercial Motor magazine, the world’s oldest magazine dedicated to the commercial vehicle industry.

Share this article

axle
bodytype
cabtype
Emissions
Vehicle Type
make
model
;