The HSE said today (3 November) that Safi Qais Khan, 29-year-old employee, suffered fatal injuries at the company in Sparkhill on 22 January 2015 as he was working on a trommel, and became entangled within it. He sadly died of crush injuries to his head and upper chest. The trommel was described as being in a “dilapidated, ramshackle and lethal state with unguarded moving parts and no emergency stops”.
Master Construction Products (Skips) Limited which had a registered office in Tyseley and is now in liquidation, accepted a charge of Corporate Manslaughter and was fined £255,000.
The HSE added: “A director of the waste recycling company who was responsible for Health and Safety on the site has been given a 12 month custodial sentence which was suspended for two years for breaching S37 of the Health & Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. He was also ordered to undertake 300 hours of unpaid work and is suspended from holding a Directorship in a company for 8 years prison sentence. He failed to provide employees with safe equipment and a safe system of work.”
Safeguards
The HSE commented that this was “a tragic death which could have been avoided if basic safeguards had been put in place on the machinery.”
The waste industry is a known high risk industry and for this reason HSE said it is currently targeting the sector “with an inspection initiative that will look at certain activities, especially machinery guarding to ensure effective management and control of risk”.
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