GBP30,000 fine for quarry firm after worker plunges 16ft

A 30-tonne wheel loader vehicle overturned, leading to a quarry operators being fined £30,000.

Beverly Magistrates Court heard how Humberside Aggregates and Excavations Ltd was training an employee as a wheel loader operator at the North Cave Quarry, which is the company's sand and gravel extraction and processing facility.

As the employee, who does not wish to be named, was transporting sand from a stockpile on 30 October 2009, when the access ramp edge he was driving on gave way. The machine overturned and plunged almost 16ft because no edge protection barriers were in place. As a result the employee lost consciousness and suffered concussion and required hospitalisation for 2 days.

The company was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive for failing to assess, identify and minimise the potential risk and for failing to protect the employee.

Humberside Aggregates and Excavations Ltd was fined £30,000 and ordered to pay costs of £10,590 after pleading guilty to three separate breaches of Quarries Regulations 1999.

Following the hearing HSE inspector Richard Noble said: "This accident could have been avoided had sufficient edge protection been put in place at minimal cost, which has been the standard within the quarrying industry for many years."

"Quarrying remains one of the most dangerous industries to work in. Since 2000 more than 3,000 workers have suffered an injury reportable to HSE and 24 people have been killed. Workplace transport is the industries biggest cause of fatal accidents within the industry, and that is why the industry and HSE work together in a joint advisory committee to introduce good practices for quarry operators."

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