A major metal recycling firm has been hit with a £650,000 fine after it failed to segregate HGVs from pedestrians while waste was being manually sorted.

ASM Metal Recycling in Aylesbury received the enforcement action after a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector visited the site in 2023 and videoed dangerous working practices.

The videos showed three pedestrian workers wearing yellow hi-vis jackets sorting waste in the yard in close proximity to three 360 grab excavators operating behind them.

As they continued to hand-sort the waste, a red HGV skip lorry pulled forwards and then reversed towards and passed them.

Two of the workers had their backs towards the still reversing HGV and the footage revealed there were no measures, such as barriers, to prevent the vehicle coming into contact with, and causing injury to the workers.

An HSE investigation found that ASM Metal Recycling had previously identified the risks of pedestrian-vehicle collision but had failed to implement effective control measures to prevent this.

The HSE had previously served enforcement notices on ASM Metal Recycling in 2010, 2014, 2016, 2018.

It also wrote notification of contravention letters to the company in 2021 and 2023.

The company pleaded guilty to breaching the health and safety at work act and was fined £650,000 and was ordered to pay £5,885 costs at a hearing at Oxford Magistrates Court.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Emma Page said: “The scrap and metal recycling industry has consistently had a poor fatal incident rate for many years.

“The most serious risk associated with manually sorting waste is a collision between a vehicle and a pedestrian. On average, there are around five fatalities each year in the waste industry, with nearly half of these relating to being struck by a moving vehicle.

“Incidents happen because working practices have failed to achieve effective segregation of moving vehicles from pedestrians.

“During my inspection it was clear that this was the case at ASM Metal Recycling’s Griffin Lane premises in Aylesbury, and the fact we had previously identified these areas of concern but they were not acted upon resulted in HSE’s prosecution of the company,” she added.

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