Bradford & District | Archive | 2005 | February | 8
From the Telegraph & Argus, first published Tuesday 8th Feb 2005.
Bradford Council has been fined and ordered to pay costs totalling more than £83,000 after a father fell to his death into a 40-tonne paper baler.
A judge at Leeds Crown Court said the death of waste disposal worker Martin Baker at a Council re-cycling plant was "an accident waiting to happen".
Mr Baker was crushed by the machine at the Waste Recycling Plant in Bowling Back Lane in August 2002.
The 38-year-old agency worker from Holme Wood had clambered on to the conveyor belt 30ft up to clear a blockage, and had fallen to his death in the baling machine.
Judge Hoffman said there had been a "serious failure to address and safeguard the safety of the deceased and his fellow employees" by Bradford Council, which ran the plant.
Fining the council £60,000 and ordering them to pay costs of £23,691 Judge Hoffman said: "The degree of failing and culpability was significant."
It was not enough for an employer to say `don't do it'. He said: "It is incumbent on them to say how they should do it."
He also said management approach to the safe operation of machinery was inadequate and that workers learned from a hand- me-down approach through word of mouth.
"Nothing was done to educate any of the operations in clearing a blockage.
"Too much was left to the discretion of the untrained operatives. Little had been done to set up a safe operating system," he said.
The court had been told that Mr Baker, who had a partner and four-year-old daughter, was a "hard-worker" and was "well-liked" by his colleagues and had worked there for 12 months before the accident.
After the case his partner, Louise Munday, said the family had named a star after him in the sky so little Jessica, who is now six, could look for him at night.
"We talk about him and she remembers him. On clear nights we look up for his star. He is not going to be a taboo subject. This part is over, but for us it will continue to go on.
"I suppose it means it will not happen to anyone else and that is a good thing but it is still very painful for us even after all this time.
"His workmates have been brilliant since, but all we have had from the Council is one letter from the Council leader, Margaret Eaton."
Louise said that if it had been a private company the fine would have hurt them harder in the pocket but at least the machine was now out of action.
She said a decision had yet to be made on whether she would be seeking compensation.
Bradford Council pleaded guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety act.
Barrister Bryan Cox, for the Health and Safety Executive, said Mr Baker had been trying to clear a blockage by prodding a piece of wood through the inspection hatch.
When that didn't work, he was joined on the gantry by another worker who tried to help. Mr Baker then got on to the conveyor belt and started pulling pieces of cardboard away from the top of the chute.
Mr Cox said his colleagues suddenly heard a scream. He added: "Mr Baker could not be seen. He had clearly fallen into the hopper.
"The bailer was heard to start up. The sensors had been activated by Mr Baker who received fatal injuries from the compactors."
He said the HSE investigation centred on the failure to establish a safe system of work and a failure to train the supervisor and other operatives, including the deceased.
The court heard that, two months before the tragedy, the system changed where a machine put the cardboard on to the conveyor belt rather than it being done by hand.
Mr Cox said since then workers had said the machine had started to block more often and he read out statements from other workers who talked about climbing on to the conveyor belt to unblock it.
He said: "There was a practice of going on to the conveyor belt to clear blockages. The picture which emerges is that there was no formal procedure for dealing with blockages, practices varied.
"Some men appreciated they should not have gone on to the conveyor belt but too little was done to impose and enforce a formal method to clear blockages."
Patrick Field QC for the Council said in mitigation there were warning signs and a supervisor had wrongly allowed Mr Baker to go on to the conveyor belt.
But the judge said they were wrong to try to blame the supervisor as he was paid "only pennies" more than those he was supervising.
Mr Field said he accepted negligence but did not accept there had been any deliberate exposure to danger or recklessness.
After the case Richard Wixey, Bradford Council's Director of Environmental service, extended sympathies to the family. He said changes to procedures had already been undertaken since the accident.
He said: "We will continue to carry out regular reviews of working practices to ensure that we have the best safety systems possible."
David Craxton, principal inspector from the HSE, said: "If risk assessments are comprehensive, if safe ways of working are in place and if all people doing the work, including agency workers, are properly trained, we can prevent other families losing a loved one in such tragic circumstances.
"I hope that today's case sends a very clear message to companies working in the waste management industry."
© Newsquest Media Group 2008