The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is urging companies to make sure that there are sufficient risk assessments in place following the death of a worker at a Hampshire waste transfer station. Waste Management and Construction firm John Stacey and Sons have been fined £60,000 plus costs by Winchester Crown Court, after Frederick Aubrey was killed on 1 June 2007 at its Tadley facility in the north of Hampshire.
Mr Aubrey had been working with two other employees hand-sorting material in a process known as "totting." A fourth worker was asked to tip over a skip with a shovel loader and, in doing so, reversed over Mr Aubrey. He died five days later in hospital. The HSE explained that the practice of "totting" had only been going on at the company for about two weeks prior to the incident, and John Stacey and Sons had not recognised that by doing this people were being unnecessarily exposed to the risk of vehicles moving around them with nothing to protect them.
John Stacey and Sons pleaded guilty to breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations SI 1999/3242 at an earlier hearing this year at Basingstoke Magistrates Court.
HSE inspector David Bibby, said, "This case highlights the importance of assessing risks and putting adequate controls in place to protect pedestrians from vehicles, and the tragic consequences when this is not properly done. This should serve as a message to all companies, and especially those in the waste industry where unfortunately accidents like this are all too common, to ensure that risks from workplace transport are identified and suitable measures put in place to prevent accidents."
