Nine Fatalities In Eight Weeks - HSE Issues Safety Alert To Waste And Recycling Industry

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has today (3rd March) issued a safety alert to the waste and recycling industry following nine reported fatalities in eight weeks nationally. In seven instances, people were killed by being struck by a vehicle.

These include an incident in Wigton , Cumbria on 30 January 2006 when a member of the public was run over by a reversing bin lorry. In the North West as a whole, there have been two fatalities, 34 major incidents and 54 incidents in which a worker needed three days off work, since 2001/2

Commenting on the figures, Paul Harvey, Principal Inspector of HSE's Waste and Recycling Section said: "The tragedy of these incidents must act as a stimulus for the industry to review its procedures, making sure that vehicle risks are properly controlled. Wherever possible pedestrians and vehicles should be segregated, paying special attention to transfer stations and sorting areas. Street collection activities need to address the risks to collection staff and other road and pavement users."

"Using reversing aids such as mirrors, CCTV, detectors and beacons do reduce the risks. In most public access areas you will usually need to provide reversing assistants, their job being to help the driver and prevent or warn pedestrians entering maneuvering areas when the risks cannot be controlled adequately by other means."

But whilst the HSE's Waste and Recycling Section is currently working to deliver a three-year programme to improve the performance of the industry by working with them and managing an inspection initiative delivered by HSE field inspectors, many will be once again questioning the whole strategy of self-regulation and voluntary enforce which seems to govern the whole direction of health and safety enforcement in the UK.

The HSE's own report, 'Mapping the health and safety performance of the UK waste industry' shows the industry has an incident rate four to five times the national average (i.e approximately 2500 incidents per 100,000 workers per year)

Source: GNN