A waste management company has been fined after a young employee was run over by an excavator.
Farm XS (Northern) Limited, based in Barnard Castle, was sentenced after an incident on January 29 last year that left the 24-year-old with serious injuries.
The employee was only in his second week of employment at the Staindrop Road site when he was struck from behind by an excavator and run over. He suffered fractures to both feet.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the company had failed to ensure a safe system of work was in place.
The 24-year-old was working on a waste pile near moving vehicles with no physical separation between them. There was no risk assessment or system of work to protect pedestrians from vehicle movements.
HSE guidance clearly states that pedestrians and vehicles should be segregated when waste is being manually sorted.
By law, employers must ensure traffic routes can be used without risking the safety of workers nearby.
The case against Farm XS (Northern) Limited, Shaw Bank, brought by the HSE, was heard at Teesside Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, August 5.
The company pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. It was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay £4,285 in costs.
After the hearing, HSE inspector Richard McMullen said: “The outcome could have been much worse.
“But the failures that day meant a worker received serious injuries. This incident was easily avoidable by implementing control measures and safe practices to ensure that workers were not put at risk from moving vehicles, including clear segregation and safe refuges.
“This should be a reminder to the waste industry of the need to consider workplace transport risks and to introduce appropriate control measures to separate vehicles and pedestrians.”
