Updated: scrapyard death firm ignored HSE warnings

Prosecutions and Claims |
12.02.2008

A scrapyard business that ignored HSE warnings about safety at its sites has been fined £200,000 after a worker was killed by a reversing lorry.

Easco (Midlands) was fined on 5 February for failing to ensure the safety of 58-year-old employee Ronald Barnacle. The judge said Barnacle was killed as a result of "systemic failures" at the firm.

Barnacle was working as a burner at Easco's site in Longford, Coventry, when the accident happened on 14 June 2005. He was in the middle of the yard, flame-cutting large pieces of scrap into smaller pieces, when was hit by a reversing skip lorry.

HSE inspector Jenny Skeldon told HSP that it was difficult for vehicles to manoeuvre around the site: because of the lack of space, lorries were unable to turn around and were forced to reverse long distances down two tracks. Barnacle had been working between these tracks without any physical protection.

On the day of the accident, Easco had not been using trained banksmen to guide the skip lorries.

Skeldon said she would expect to see minimal reversing; one-way systems where practicable; and effective segregation of vehicles and pedestrians, using physical barriers (where possible), crossing points and marked walkways.

"[Easco] had had previous warnings about workplace transport management at other sites in the group," she noted, "and they'd also had an Improvement Notice at another site."

Easco (Midlands) pleaded guilty at Coventry Crown Court to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act and was fined £200,000 with costs of £55,000.

Judge Plunkett said Barnacle's death had been "avoidable" but gave credit for the firm's guilty plea and the greater importance attached to health and safety since the accident.

Transport accidents are the second biggest cause of deaths at work, after falls from height. HSE figures indicate around 70 people are killed each year in transport-related accidents.

More information on safe site layout can be found on the HSE website.