Safety warnings after waste firm’s prosecution

Mar 24 2008 by Neil Atkinson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

HEALTH watchdogs have urged firms to tighten up on workplace safety - particularly with vehicles.

The warning from the Health and Safety Executive follows its prosecution of a waste company after a worker was injured when he was run over in Brighouse.

FOCSA Services (UK) Ltd, which has its headquarters in Rochdale, was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay costs of £4,277 at Calderdale Magistrates' Court, after pleading guilty to breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

In September 2006, a 54-year-old worker at Atlas Mill Household Recycling Site in Brighouse, which was managed by FOCSA,

was knocked down and run over by a telehandler as it manoeuvred to unload a kerbside recycling vehicle.

He suffered severe internal injuries and was hospitalised for three months.

Health and Safety Inspector Kate Dixon said: "This was a tragic and entirely avoidable incident, from which the worker was lucky to escape with his life.

“The employer failed to ensure that proper measures were taken to protect the worker and the consequences of that will affect him permanently.

“The employer failed to provide a system of work that adequately controlled the risks arising from the movement of vehicles on the site.

“The dangerous parts of the site were not adequately fenced off or secured and site rules were not enforced. This also meant that members of the public were also put at risk.”