Packaging News
Smurfit Kappa hit with £9k fine for worker injury
Packaging and recycling company Smurfit Kappa has been ordered to pay £9,204 after an employee broke his ribs when he was forced onto a metal conveyor belt by a reversing van.
The incident, which happened at the company’s Preston plant in September 2009, saw the 60-year-old unnamed member of staff injured while he was pushing waste cardboard onto a conveyor belt.
The company, which has its head office in Liverpool, was found guilty of breaching Regulation 17 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 because it failed to allow pedestrians and vehicles to work or move safely.
Preston Magistrates Court fined Smurfit Kappa £5,000 and ordered it to pay £4,204 costs on 13 October
Imran Siddiqui, the investigation inspector at the Health and Safety Executive, said: “If he (the employee) had been hit harder by the vehicle, or forced into the machine which baled the cardboard, then his injuries may have been a lot more severe.
“The company failed to control the movement of vehicles in the warehouse, despite waste materials regularly being delivered to the site. There should also have been a segregated area for pedestrians so there was no chance of anyone being injured by reversing vans.”
The company declined to comment on the incident when contacted by Packaging News.
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