WASTE contractors Biffa yesterday (Monday) admitted two charges arising from a death at Newbury’s waste recycling centre.
Fifty-eight-year-old Dennis Krauesslar from Newbury was hit by the shovel of a mechanical digger as he deposited grass cuttings at West Berkshire Council's Pinchington Lane centre in September 2007.
Michael Veal, for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), told Newbury magistrates on Monday that the risk to the public at the time was an “obvious” one and added: “Biffa fell far short of appropriate standards. The measures they should have taken to protect workers and members of the public were simple and inexpensive. This continued for some time.”
Mr Veal revealed that, in 2008, Biffa had an annual turnover of £555 million and a £16.6 million net profit.
Biffa company secretary Keith Woodward was in court but took no part in the proceedings.
Mark Scoggins, representing the firm, said that it admitted failing to conduct the use of a loading shovel for green waste in such a way as to ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable, that the public was not thereby exposed to health and safety risks between August 1, 2005, and September 10, 2007.
Biffa further admitted failing to make a suitable and sufficient public health and safety risk assessment between the same dates.
The company was hired as contractor by West Berkshire Council throughout that period.
Mr Veal reminded magistrates that their powers of punishment could not exceed a total fine of £25,000 and urged them to send the matter to the Crown court where a judge would have “unlimited powers by contrast.”
Mr Scoggins told them: “You will hear nothing from me suggesting you should keep this matter for sentence. However, the allegation of an obvious, serious, long-standing exposure to risk is not necessarily accepted.
“Whatever argument we may have with the HSE on actually how far short of the standard we fell, I’m sure we can assume that £25,000 would be insufficient.”
Mr Scoggins said that: “Since members of the press are present I would ask that reporting restrictions are to remain.”
In fact, magistrates had imposed no such restrictions.
Presiding magistrate Bridget Vogel formally declined jurisdiction on the bench’s behalf.
Biffa will now be sentenced at Crown court at a date to be fixed.
During a three-day inquest into the tragedy, held in July 2008, the Krauesslar family’s representative tried to introduce evidence from an HSE report which, they said, detailed previous “near misses” and safety failings at the site.
Berkshire coroner Peter Bedford ruled these were inadmissable.
In a narrative verdict, the jury found contributing factors to Mr Krauesslar’s death included an informal safety procedure regarding digger window visibility, lack of formal communication between the digger driver and site staff, risk assessments that did not highlight potential public danger and apparent lack of risk reporting between all levels of site personnel.
Speaking after the inquest, Mr Krauesslar’s widow Linda said she felt that Biffa should have faced manslaughter charges.
West Berkshire Council made no comment following the inquest.