South Yorkshire skip hire company fined

Skip hire and waste processing company, J Edwards Waste Management Ltd was sentenced today for safety breaches after a worker was injured trying to clear a blockage in a trommel drum.

Sheffield Magistrates court heard how, on 24 March 2015, the drum of the trommel machine used for sorting material had become jammed and the worker did not turn off the machine before going into the drum to clear the blockage.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that after the individual entered the drum of the machine and cleared the blockage, the machine started to operate and rotate while the employee was still inside. The individual was tumbled around and repeatedly struck by the waste material inside the drum before the machine was stopped.

J Edwards Waste Management Ltd of Lidget Lane Industrial Estate, Thurnscoe, Rotherham pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 (1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was fined £30,000 with £3621 costs.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Laura Hunter commented: “This case highlight’s the importance of isolating machinery before intervening.

“This incident could so easily have been avoided by simply having a safe system of work for clearing blockages after completing a risk assessment”

Notes to Editors:
1. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. We prevent work-related death, injury and ill health through regulatory actions that range from influencing behaviours across whole industry sectors through to targeted interventions on individual businesses. These activities are supported by globally recognised scientific expertise. www.hse.gov.uk
2. More about the legislation referred to in this case can be found at: www.legislation.gov.uk/
3. More information on retrofitting woodworking machine brakes can be found here: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/wis38.pdf
4. HSE news releases are available at http://press.hse.gov.uk

Journalists should approach HSE press office with any queries on regional press releases.