A Dutch waste recycling company has been fined £60,000 and ordered to pay £22,000 in legal and medical costs after a worker lost part of his arm in an industrial incident in Basildon, Essex.
Coolrec Group BV, of Croy 25, 5653 LC Eindhoven, Netherlands, was penalised after it admitted breaching Section 6(1)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 at Basildon Magistrates’ Court.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted the firm after Daniel Ali, 35, had to have one of his arms amputated after it got caught in a conveyer belt while he was working at the company’s site in Harvey Road, Burnt Mills Industrial Estate, Basildon, on April 4, 2008.
The court heard that Mr Ali, of Laindon, was clearing plastic from a recycling line which handled old computer monitors and television sets. A pulverising machine smashed the screens into smaller parts before operators removed materials from the conveyor belt.
Mr Ali had bent down to clear some wire from the ground when his glove became caught in an unguarded conveyor running underneath the one he was working on. He was trapped for approximately 45 minutes until emergency services freed him, but doctors could not save his arm and it was amputated between the elbow and shoulder.
Medico-Legal News Source: Claims Management Magazine
