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25/05/2010
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Waste management and recycling firm SITA UK has been fined, after a driver was killed at a Northamptonshire landfill site.
 The company was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), following the death of Gary Carter, 32, at the Cranford landfill site on 4 January 2007. SITA pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and was fined £210,000 and costs of £38,000.
Northampton Crown Court heard that Carter, of Kidwelly, Dyfed, arrived at the site to empty his refuse lorry and, like all the lorries emptying at the site that day, had to be assisted onto and off the tipping area due to the wet weather and soft ground conditions.
After being towed to the tipping area by a bulldozer, Carter discharged only part of his load. To shed the rest he had to move forward but his truck had become too bogged down.
The driver of the compactor, which was spreading the rubbish behind his lorry, radioed to him to say he would drive up behind Mr Carter's lorry and push it forward with his own vehicle.
At the same time the bulldozer reversed up to the front of Carter's lorry to give him a tow. Both tried to help Mr Carter move, but without communicating with each other. When the compactor started to push the lorry forward, Carter was attaching a tow rope from the bulldozer to the front of his lorry. He was crushed to death between his lorry and back of the bulldozer.
The court heard from the prosecution that new working arrangements had been introduced a few days before the accident without having been properly risk assessed. Further, SITA had not defined the supervisory roles for their staff on the site, and site rules on pushing lorries were ambiguous.
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Author
John Challen
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