Skip Accident Kills Worker Because Of Health And Safety Breaches

A UK food supplier has been fined following an accident which killed an employee.

The 30-year-old man was working at the food company, in Renfrewshire, Scotland in July 2011 when an unbalanced skip fell on top of him. Initially, the man suffered only an ankle injury which was treated at Glasgow Southern General Hospital immediately following the accident.

A series of failings

He attended Paisley Royal Alexandra Infirmary on 26th July to have further surgery on his leg. A month after his operation he had a pulmonary embolism in the middle of the night. He was rushed to hospital with breathing difficulties but died an hour later.

Paisley Sherriff Court learned how the organisation’s parent company had made a series of failings. There had been no risk assessment for the safe disposal of waste and no procedures in place for ensuring the safe transportation of food in a wheeled container. It was also discovered that there was no safety equipment provided to do the job.

The Sherriff said the situation was ‘most unfortunate and unusual’. She said that the company had failed by not doing a risk assessment on the type of skip used but acknowledged that the skip had only been used one or two days prior to the accident.

The company was ultimately ordered to pay a £67,000 fine after admitting liability.

It was highlighted that the company had a strong track record of health and safety and it was acknowledged that steps had been taken to ensure a similar accident wouldn’t happen again.

The company said that it worked well with the authorities from the start and that the man had been a valued employee. It added: “Since this incident, we have comprehensively reviewed our safety procedures to ensure that this remains an isolated event.”

Published on 16th February 2015.