A wood recycling company has been fined £200,000 following a death at work where a worker was struck and run over by a loading vehicle. 43-year-old Raymond Thomas Burns, from Eston, worked for UK Wood Recycling Ltd at its site in Redcar. He was employed as a load inspector and was walking through the yard on the site when he was hit by a load shovel.
The company was investigated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and prosecuted last week (12th November) at Teesside Crown Court.
The court heard how, on 19th December 2008, Mr Burns was working in the yard of the site where a shovel vehicle was moving material from one area to another. As he crossed towards a skip, he was struck and run over by the vehicle and died of his injuries at the scene.
The HSE investigation found that UK Wood Recycling Ltd had put no segregation measures in place to separate the vehicles and pedestrians who were working on the site, despite several other near-miss incidents reported by workers.
The company was fined £200,000 along with £34,000 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching the Workplace Regulations 1992.
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