A brick manufacturing company has been fined £280,000, plus costs, after a worker who had only been employed at the company’s distribution site for two weeks, was crushed to death.
The incident occurred in April 2008 at Coleshill, Warkwickshire, the distribution plant of Hanson Building Products Ltd.
At the time of the incident, Peter Clarke was carrying out his usual job of removing waste bricks from the production line and collecting samples for quality-control testing. As Mr Clarke leaned forward to remove some bricks from the machine, another worker changed the direction of the conveyor, causing Mr Clarke’s head to become crushed between the concrete blocks on the conveyor and the metal platform above.
The operator of the 30-metre conveyor could not see Mr Clarke because his view was obscured.
The company was issued with a prohibition notice, preventing the machine from being used until the safety risks were properly eliminated. HSE inspector Peter Snelgrove said of the incident, “It could have been prevented if Hanson Building products had carried out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment to identify all the hazards for workers operating in this area.”
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