A waste and recycling company in Oldham has been fined £250,000 after a man was run over by a shovel loader on his first day working on the site.
The man, now 44, was hit from behind by a moving shovel loader on his first day of work at the Mossdown Road site of Wheeldon Brothers Waste Limited in Oldham.
He suffered a bone fracture and muscle and nerve damage to his leg after being struck by the vehicle in the yard on 28 July 2021.
The man spent one week in hospital because of his injuries and has now returned to work with a different company.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that he had been hand-picking waste after the company’s conveyor belt was removed from use after it was significantly damaged in a fire a few months earlier.
This meant employees were required to work directly on the ground near moving vehicles with no separation between them.
This incident was easily avoidable by implementing control measures and safe practices.
The HSE said the company had not conducted a risk assessment and there was a lack of supervision for picking and sorting waste on the ground, which put the workers in considerable danger.
HSE guidance states that pedestrians and moving vehicles should be segregated when waste is being manually sorted.
Wheeldon Brothers Waste Limited pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 at Manchester Magistrates’ Court and was fined £250,000 and ordered to pay £4102.32 in costs.
After the hearing, HSE principal inspector Lisa Bailey said the man “is lucky to be alive”.
“This incident was easily avoidable by implementing control measures and safe practices,” Bailey said.
“Measures should have been implemented to ensure that workers present in the yard were not put at risk from moving vehicles in and around where they were working, including rigorous pedestrian and vehicle segregation and safe refuge for workers whilst vehicles are operating.
“This should be a reminder to the waste industry of the need to ensure that workplace transport is appropriately considered, with control measures introduced to ensure the appropriate separation of vehicles and pedestrians.”
