A waste management company has been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), after an employee fell from the roof of a truck in an accident at work.

Blackburn Magistrates’ Court was told that a forty four year old employee, who has not been named, was working for Neales Waste Management Ltd, and was assisting to empty a skip at the Walker Industrial Park in Guide, Blackburn.

However due to over-filling, waste from the skip had become stuck on the collection vehicles roof and the worker had attempted to reach the blockage by climbing up metal bars attached to the truck, unfortunately the fixings on the bars gave way and he crashed to the ground below.

The worker suffered serious personal injury in the fall from height accident, including a broken right elbow and a damaged foot.

An investigation by the HSE revealed that the company had wrongly assumed that the metal bars on the truck could be used as a ladder; however this was not the case and they were not designed for that purpose.

Neales Waste Management Ltd, of Walker Road in Guide, Blackburn, was fined £15,000 and ordered to pay court costs totalling £11,661, after pleading guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act.

Speaking after the court hearing a HSE inspector commented that Neales should have prevented employees climbing up vehicles in such a way and provided a safer method of working.