Westminster Magistrates’ Court was told how a RRS London Waste Papers Ltd worker was found dead inside the compaction chamber of a baling machine. The worker had suffered fatal crush injuries in the incident, which occurred on 27 March 2017.
Investigating, the HSE found the worker had fallen down the loading hopper into the compaction chamber of a baling machine. He was most likely attempting to clear a blockage and falling into the chamber initiated the compaction sequence.
This could have been prevented, say the HSE, had RRS London Waste Papers Ltd devised and instructed workers on a safe method for clearing machine blockages. Climbing up the baler to clear machine blockages exposed workers to the risk of falling a significant distance either into the compaction chamber or the surrounding concrete floor.
RRS London Waste Papers Ltd of Manor Road, Erith was found guilty of breaching Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The company was fined £250,000 and ordered to pay costs of £6,639.77 and a victim surcharge of £170.
Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Nicholas Wright said: “This tragic incident, which led to the avoidable death of a father, was easily preventable and the risk should have been identified.
“Employers should make sure they properly assess and apply effective control measures to minimise the risk from dangerous parts of machinery. Maintenance work should only be carried out when the piece of equipment is isolated and confirmed safe. Companies should be aware that HSE will not hesitate to take enforcement action against those that fall below the required standards.”
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Nasty, though I hear that some large supermarket chains have similar bailers, and initiation of new shop floor shelf filling staff in one involves putting them inside an empty bailer until they plead to be let out…
I thought that these stupid and degrading initiation practices had died out. Obviously still a lot of cretinous staff and management out there.
Total agree, more employees need to be prosecuted under section 7 and 36. Make an example of a few and it may help to stop things like this happening. We also use to have public service adverts on the TV, perhaps it could be put out on air, what happens to you if you bully/initiate people at work. But of course this would mean the government of the day being serious about these matters and not just playing lip service to it. HASAWA 1974 is an excellent piece of legislation and needs to be used more on poor employee practices.
But lets not forget this poor chap who was probably only trying to do his job and keep his job…