A metals recycling company has been fined £1.2m after a worker fractured his skull when struck by a skip wagon at a processing site.
Rotherham-based reprocessors CF Booth pleaded guilty at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court to breaching Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
One of the firm’s employees was hit by a moving 32-tonne vehicle while walking across a site yard in the Yorkshire town in August 2020.
As well as the head injury, the man’s collar bone was fractured in two places. He has made a full recovery.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that at the time of the incident, the site was not organised in such a way that pedestrians and vehicles could circulate in a safe manner.
The man was not wearing a hi-vis jacket and the wagon driver was concentrating on manoeuvring around ow-level skips placed on a corner.
A suitable and sufficient workplace transport risk assessment was not in place for the segregation of vehicles and pedestrians, the HSE found.
Inspector Kirstie Durrans said: “If CF Booth had assessed the risks and ensured vehicles and pedestrians could circulate in a safe manner, this incident could have easily been avoided.”
CF Booth has been contacted for comment.
