Veolia fined £130,000 following employee death

Veolia Environmental Services (UK) has been fined £130,000 after an employee was killed when a 1,100-litre recycling bin fell on his head.

David Ives, 56, of High Wycombe, Bucks, who was a worker at the firm, formally known as Onyx UK, was collecting rubbish outside a pub in Easington, near Aylesbury, when the incident happened on 5 May 2004.

Aylesbury Crown Court heard that a recycling bin fell from the bin hoist on the recycling truck and landed on Mr Ives' head, killing him.

On Thursday 11 February 2010 the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Veolia Environmental Services over the incident and the jury found the company guilty of breaching sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

Veolia was fined £130,000 and ordered to pay costs of £220,000.

In the same trial, truck service dealer Brian Currie Milton Keynes was found not guilty of breaching section 3(1) of the 1974 Act.