A waste management company, Peter Norris (Haulage) Ltd has been fined £140,000 after an agency worker suffered lower leg amputation after being struck by a moving excavator.
Westminster Magistrates' Court heard that in September 2017 the worker, who had been observing a tipping activity in the blind spot of the excavator, had his leg crushed by the machine which had reversed to accommodate another vehicle tipping off the waste in an adjacent part of the site.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found no evidence of any system whereby new agency hired staff were shown the site's safety rules, meaning the injured worker was unaware that he had to stand in the safe refuge area whilst vehicles were moving around the site.
Peter Norris (Haulage) Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, was fined £140,000 and ordered to pay costs of £9,322.48.
HSE inspector John Spence stated that this incident was preventable and had caused permanent life-changing injuries to a young agency worker.
"The company failed to implement an adequate system of monitoring of agency workers on-site who were, therefore, in effect, left to manage themselves without necessary oversight from the company.
"Any company that uses agency workers are required to extend the same duty of care to them as their own direct employee".
