Workman ‘lucky to be alive’ after being run over by truck at waste site on first day

A worker is “lucky to be alive” after he was hit from behind by a moving shovel loader at a waste site on the first day of his new job.

CCTV footage shows the moment the 40-year-old man was hit by the digger when he was hand picking waste at the Mossdown Road site of Wheeldon Brothers Waste Limited in Oldham.

He suffered a bone fracture, as well as muscle and nerve damage to his leg after the incident on 28 July 2021.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that he had been hand picking waste after the conveyor belt they used had been removed from use after it was significantly damaged in a fire a few months earlier.

The investigation also found the company had failed to ensure there were adequate measures in place for the safe segregation of vehicles and pedestrians.

Wheeldon Brothers Waste Limited, of Bury New Road, Bury, Lancashire, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, was fined £250,000 and ordered to pay £4102.32 costs at a hearing at Manchester Magistrates’ Court on 2 April.