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May/June 2023 issue

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News

Asphyxiation fine cut by at least 87% because employer was in administration

Open-access content Tuesday 8th November 2016
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

2._recyclers_administration_cut_asphyxiation_fine_by_at_least_87

Maidstone Crown Court was told that New Earth Solutions Group employee Neville Watson, 39, was working close to the waste heap on 9 August 2014, carrying out a shredding task at the company's Blaise Farm Quarry site in West Malling, Kent.

He had connected a shredder to the loading shovel he was driving when the pile collapsed on him. He died from asphyxiation. It was the first time Watson had operated the shredding machine, Kent Online reported.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that New Earth Solutions had no risk assessments or safe systems of work for building and managing stockpiles. It had not trained Watson adequately or arranged supervision.

The company, which operates five sites, pleaded guilty to breaching s 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act. It was fined £80,000 and ordered to pay costs of £38,374, however the judge indicated that had it not been in administration, the fine would have been between £600,000 and £1.3m.

HSE inspector Guy Widdowson said after the hearing: "The request for Mr Watson to carry out the shredding operation was made without any form of structured training being in place. The company failed to ensure that Mr Watson was supervised by an employee trained in the task he was carrying out, particularly in light of the fact that he had never carried out the task before."

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Image credit: ©Invicta Kent Media/REX/Shutterstock

 Waste pile asphyxiation provides first test of sentencing guidelines for companies no longer trading

Wednesday 16th November 2016
New Earth Solutions, a waste treatment business that was fined £80,000 after an employee was buried in a pile of waste and asphyxiated, would have had to pay £600,000 if it was not in administration, IOSH Magazine has learnt. The case is believed to be the first application of the new sentencing guidelines to a firm that has stopped trading.
Open-access content

 CO poisoning killed worker on London construction site

Thursday 27th October 2016
An employee of Non Destructive Testing Services was carrying out pile testing at a construction site in Brixton, London on 29 May 2012, Southwark Crown Court was told. The worker was inside an accommodation unit fitted to a vehicle when he was overcome by carbon monoxide fumes from one of the unit’s gas appliances and died.The Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) investigation found the unit’s ventilation was inadequate. There were two gas appliances in the cabin, with pipework and gas cylinders that that been there for several years.
Open-access content

 Goodyear fined $1m over deaths at US manufacturing plant

Wednesday 26th October 2016
The Virginia Department of Labor and Industry said that its Virginia Occupational Safety and Health (VOSH) programme cited four “wilful” and 115 “serious” violations and $1,012,400 in penalties to the multinational tyre manufacturer earlier this month as a result of comprehensive site inspections.    Four workers have died in accidents at the plant since August last year.
Open-access content
©iStock/nkbimages

 David Lloyd fined £330k after boy almost drowned in club pool

Tuesday 22nd November 2016
David Lloyd notified Hounslow Council’s health and safety officers of the incident, who found a series of failures during their investigation. Isleworth Crown Court was told that five-year-old Blakeney Dear, who could not swim, was taking part in a swimming activity at the club during half term, on 19 and 20 February 2013.
Open-access content

 Shredder injury brings £300k fine for recycling firm

Monday 24th October 2016
The plant mechanic, employed by Countrystyle Recycling, was fixing the shredder on 7 October 2013. A metal plate forming the roof of the hammer drum – in which waste material is smashed into smaller pieces by hammers – had become detached. Maidstone Magistrates’ Court heard the employee was kneeling on a conveyor belt inside the shredder when it restarted. He was thrown from the machine, fracturing his right leg and left arm.
Open-access content

 Aberfan remembered

Friday 21st October 2016
The Welsh village of Aberfan, in the Taff Valley near Merthyr Tydfil, was engulfed in more than 40,000 cu m of mine waste. The waste, mud, rock and coal from the Merthyr colliery, operated by the National Coal Board (NCB), had been dumped in seven mountainous tips, known as slag heaps, on the lower slopes of the mountain behind the village.
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