Cappagh fined after worker suffers severe crush injuries
Waste-recycling firm fined £260,000 following safety breaches at site in Wimbledon in 2020
CAPPAGH Public Works Ltd have been fined £260,000 after a worker sustained severe crush injuries during maintenance work at a waste-recycling site in Wimbledon, London, on 11 September 2020.
Grzegorz Poreba, an employee of the company, sustained severe injuries after becoming trapped between a conveyor and a metal bridge, which formed part of a waste-sorting machine.
The 48-year-old had entered the machine to make repairs to the mesh of the hopper. However, the machine had not been isolated from all sources of energy before the repair work started and when it was inadvertently switched on, Mr Poreba was thrown on to the conveyor, trapping him against a metal bridge.
He suffered multiple injuries that required 23 screws and two plates inside his body and has not been able to return to work since.
‘The whole accident has turned my life upside down,’ he said. ‘I cannot walk or stand for longer than an hour-and-a-half. The doctors have been trying to regain my physical and mental health. The only success so far is that I am not in a wheelchair.’
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Cappagh Public Works had failed to provide a suitable means to isolate the machinery from all sources of energy. The isolator switch had been broken and was, therefore, inoperative. The company also had no formal maintenance arrangements for the machinery.
Cappagh Public works, who pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act. 1974, were fined £260,000 and ordered to pay £4,358 costs at a hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court on 20 October 2023.
After the hearing, HSE inspector Pippa Knott said: ‘The fine imposed should underline to everyone in the waste industry that the courts, and HSE, take a failure to ensure that maintenance work is completed safely extremely seriously. Grzegorz is lucky to be alive and the incident has left a lasting impression on him.
‘We will not hesitate to take action against companies which do not do all that they should to keep people safe.’
