Legal News

A pellet manufacturing company based in Nottinghamshire has been sentenced after a worker died in an industrial blender.

Rettenmaier UK Manufacturing Limited pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and Regulation 3(1)(a) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

The company – based at Strawberry Way, Crown Farm Industrial Estate, Forest Town in Mansfield – was fined £200,000 with costs of £100,000.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) was launched after 51-year-old George Major – a father of one from Mansfield – was dragged into the blender and killed on 21 January 2011.

Nottingham Crown Court heard that Mr Major was clearing material from the blender when the machine started up unexpectedly. HSE investigators found the guard had been removed from the machine and it had not been isolated and locked off from the electricity supply.

The blender was part of a production line in which shredded recycled paper was mixed with bitumen and oil before being pressed into pellets, dried and bagged. The pellets were then used to reinforce asphalt mixes for use in road surfaces.

The production line was installed on a number of floors of the Crown Farm Industrial Estate building – and was computer controlled with control screens on two floors.

However, there was no computer control screen on the same floor as the blender, with the control screen in use at the time of the accident on the floor below. There was also no line of sight from this control screen to the blender.
The court also heard that, when the production line was running, the factory was noisy.

The court heard there was no written system of work, or instructions for isolation – and no instruction to lock off isolators.

There were also no manuals or written instructions for operating plant – and neither was there proper training for staff, nor risk assessments for any works on the site.

After sentencing, HSE Inspector Samantha Farrar said:

“Mr Major’s death was entirely avoidable and his life was needlessly lost.

“The failings by Rettenmaier UK Manufacturing Ltd caused a fatality in particularly distressing circumstances.

“The absence of an effective health and safety management system –including a lack of a safe system of work for equipment isolation and lock-off, risk assessment and proper training for staff – meant that all workers at the site were at risk.

“This tragic incident could have so easily been avoided if a few simple steps had been taken by the company.”

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