Waste-management firm prosecuted after worker fatality
Company fined £136,000 after young worker crushed to death by loading shovel bucket
DERBYSHIRE waste firm Rainbow Waste Management Ltd have been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after a worker was crushed to death by the bucket of a loading shovel.
Twenty-four-year-old Ashley Morris was operating the loading shovel at the company’s site in Swadlincote on 7 June 2013 when he was crushed the machine’s bucket, causing fatal injuries to his head and spine.
Derby Crown Court heard that in the 10 days leading up to the incident, CCTV cameras at the site captured more than 200 examples of unsafe working practices, including dangerous operations with the loading shovel, such as workers being lifted in the bucket and workers having to take evasive action to avoid contact with moving vehicles.
Rainbow Waste Management Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and were fined £136,000 and ordered to pay £64,770 in costs.
HSE Principal Inspector Elizabeth Hornsby said: ‘Rainbow Waste failed to put in place basic legal requirements of training and supervision. The death of this young man was entirely avoidable.’
