R and S Recycling fined after worker killed by paper
A recycling company has been fined £100,000 after a worker was killed by a bale of waste paper.
Kenneth Swaby, 43, from Canvey Island in Essex, was crushed as he walked past a stack of crates at R and S Recycling in Beoley, near Redditch.
Mr Swaby, the company's safety officer, had insisted a junior colleague heap the bales five-high, despite being told the usual height was four.
A court heard the firm should not have let people enter the stacking area.
R and S Recycling pleaded guilty to breaching safety regulations at Worcester Crown Court, and was also ordered to pay £58,000 costs.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which brought the prosecution, said Mr Swaby, who was killed in February 2011, was new to the company and unused to dealing with bales.
"His inexperience in this area means [R and S Recycling] should have had a conversation with him about how [the bales] should be managed," said Jan Willets from the HSE.
"They were uneven and stacked too high, with no measures in place to prevent employees approaching them on foot," she added.