Two firms fined for fatal screening machine crush at MRF

Two contractors that failed to ensure the safety of an engineer who was part of a team replacing a Trisomat screen have been been fined a total of £76,000 after the machine toppled forwards crushing the self-employed worker.

Russell Hartley had been hired by Premier Engineering Projects Ltd to replace the screening machine, known colloquially as a ‘flip-flop’ at a materials recycling facility (MRF) on Twelvetrees Crescent, Bow, east London on 24 February 2020 when the fatal incident happened. 

The 48-year-old from Sheffield, South Yorkshire headed up a group of four engineers who had been tasked with the job of replacing the heavy machinery, which sorts different sizes of waste. 

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that M&M Mobile Crane Hire Ltd supplied a crane to lower the Trisomat screen, fixed with a metal structure at height in a bay at the MRF site, to ground level. 

After this task was completed, Hartley got into a telehandler and with the flip-flop resting on the lifting machine’s forks, he moved the screening machine further down the bay. However, the flip-flop became jammed in the bay when he tried to reverse the telehandler.

The HSE investigation found that at this point, M&M Mobile Crane Hire Ltd operated the crane again to lift the flip-flop off the telehandler. However, its forks were slightly raised above the ground level. 

As the crane operator moved towards the telehandler, the Trisomat screen toppled forwards off the forks. Hartley, who was standing its path, was fatally crushed while a second worker, who was standing on the machine at the time, was thrown off, but escaped sustaining serious injury.

Great Britain’s health and safety regulator found that both contractors – Premier Engineering Projects Ltd and M&M Mobile Crane Hire Ltd – had failed to ensure the safety of the replacement team on the site at the time. 

Hartley was working with nine other engineers, also hired by Premier Engineering Projects, as well as three workers from M&M Mobile Crane Hire Ltd at the site.

The HSE’s investigation concluded that the work being undertaken was not properly planned, supervised or carried out safely, and the assessment of the risks arising from the work was both unsuitable and insufficient. 

Premier Engineering Projects Ltd, of Industry Road, Carlton, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, pleaded guilty to breaching section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The contractor was fined £28,000 and ordered to pay £9,277.48 in costs at the Old Bailey on 1 August 2024.

M&M Mobile Crane Hire Ltd, of David Road, Colnbrook, Slough, pleaded guilty to breaching section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The contractor was fined £48,000 and ordered to pay £9,500 in costs at the Old Bailey on the same day.

HSE inspector Mark Slater, who investigated this incident alongside HSE inspector David Beaton, said: “Had this work been planned, managed and monitored to a sufficient standard, this incident was entirely avoidable and Hartley’s family would still have him in their lives. Risks arising from the lifting and moving of equipment of this size and nature are entirely foreseeable, and work of this nature should be afforded the utmost respect and care.”

Image credit | HSE