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July 24, 2013

Break-yard MD authorised “clearly risky” disposal method

A teenager suffered serious burns when he was engulfed in a fireball at a break yard in Surrey.
 
Redhill Magistrates’ Court heard the incident took place at Brookside Farm in Redhill, where Grublogger Ltd was the tenant. The firm specialises in the trade of used Jaguar car parts.
 
It employed a number of teenage workers at the site to strip down Jaguar cars and salvage parts to sell as spares. The firm was allowed access to a skip by the site landlord and was using it as a makeshift waste incinerator.
 
On the day of the incident, 24 March last year, workers had been given permission by Grublogger’s managing director to burn off unwanted parts in the skip using petrol, which was siphoned off from old cars.

A 15-year-old worker was doing so when the petrol ignited and a fireball shot towards him. He suffered serious burns to his face, neck, chest and arms. A second worker, also in his teens and who was standing nearby, suffered minor flash burns from the explosion.
 
An investigation by the HSE found it was completely unnecessary to burn the unwanted parts in the skip, and that the workers had received no formal training, or instruction. They had been left to their own devices, and opted for a method that posed a clear risk.

HSE inspectors also identified failings with the storage and control of petrol and sources of ignition in the company’s workshop at the industrial site.

HSE inspector Andrew McGill said: “Young people need careful management and proper supervision in the workplace, with the onus on duty-holders to provide additional protection because they inherently lack experience and maturity. The training, instruction and supervision in this case were clearly inadequate in this regard.

“There was no need to use the skip as an incinerator, and if burning waste was the preferred method of disposal then it should have been done properly, using the proper equipment and with proper management and control measures.”

Grublogger Ltd, of Lower Kingswood, Tadworth appeared in court on 22 July and pleaded guilty to breaching s2(1) of the HSWA 1974, and reg.19(1) MHSWR 1999. It was fined a total of £23,000 and ordered to pay £5113 in costs.

After the hearing, Inspector McGill added: “This was a wholly preventable incident arising from a clearly dangerous practice that should never have been allowed.”

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