Company Fined After Worker Gets Run Over

Welsh landfill company Sundorne Products, part of the Potter Group in Welshpool in Powys, has been fined £180,000 and ordered to pay costs of £7,657 after one of its employees was run over by a large shovel loader in November 2015.

The worker in question was hospitalised for six months, suffered severe injuries and had to have both legs amputated at the mid-thigh as a result.

“It is extremely important to identify how to protect your workers but you must back this up with action. This worker and his family lives have been changed forever because Sundorne Products Ltd failed to take action and protect their workers from being run over by vehicles on the site. All businesses that have high volumes of vehicles on their site can learn from this case,” inspector with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Mhairi Duffy said.

An HSE investigation found that the company failed to put controls in place in order to protect members of staff from the high volume of vehicles and traffic on site. Although this risk had been identified previously, they did not put measures in place in order to prevent employees from being hit by vehicles.

Measures could well have included the provision of disposable workwear that made it easier for drivers of vehicles to see other people on site, especially pedestrians making their way around. Personal protective equipment is a must for businesses working on sites such as these, so if you’ve yet to supply your employees with some now would be a good time to do so.