16/02/2010 - Company fined after bin man's death
Court has ordered a refuse company to pay £130,000, following the death of a worker near Aylesbury after a 1,100-litre recycling bin fell on his head.
David Ives, 56, from High Wycombe, was working for Veolia ES (UK) Ltd - formally known as Onyx UK Ltd - when the fatal incident took place outside a pub in Easington, near Aylesbury, on May 5, 2004.
Aylesbury Crown Court heard that a recycling bin fell from the bin hoist on the lorry and landed on Mr Ives's head, causing death.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted London-based Veolia ES (UK) Ltd over the incident.
The company was handed fine of £130,000 and ordered to pay legal costs of £220,000 after the jury found it guilty of breaching sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
However in the same trial, Brian Currie Milton Keynes Ltd of Norfolk House Centre, Milton Keynes, was cleared of breaching section 3(1) of the 1974 Act.
Dennis MacWilliam, HSE inspector, said: "Employers are legally required to make sure their equipment is regularly maintained and is fit for use by their workers. If the bin hoist on the recycling lorry had been maintained this incident would never have happened."
Copyright © Press Association 2010
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