SUEZ Recycling and Recovery has been fined £220,000 after a worker was injured at its Billingham energy from waste site. Teesside Crown Court heard a worker was injured when hot ash and steam erupted through a chute.
According to reports, the man was attempting to remove a blockage in a chute with a poll when the blockage fell into a “quench” pit of water, forcing a plume of hot water, ash and steam to erupt through the open chute.
He suffered serious burns to his back, arms, legs, face and ears and remained in hospital for 11 days.
The court was told that a similar incident had occurred eight months before this accident, where two men were injured, but not as seriously.
After the first incident, a safety review was undertaken and various recommendations made, but not all were fully implemented.
In court it was made clear that effective changes were not fully or properly implemented.
SUEZ have since the incident introduced new systems to ensure all staff know how to properly deal with such incidents and to wear the appropriate safety clothing.
The Judge summed up that the risk of an accident such as this was an obvious risk and the firm was “on the cusp of medium to high culpability,” she said, but added: “It’s apparent that the company has given a lot of thought to this accident and got in place a lot of different measures to try and ensure something like this would never happen again.”
Costs of £12,695.65 were awarded, as well as the £220,000 fine.
