Yorkshire HGV driver died after 820kg paper bales fell on him at waste management site

Michael Atkin, from Wetherby, was collecting a load of wastepaper bales at a waste management site in Grendon Road in Earls Barton, Northamptonshire, on October 10, 2019. An investigation into his death by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found each bale weighed at least 820kg.

The 63-year-old, a HGV driver employed by RT Keedwell, had been working at the site with an employee, who was using a forklift truck to load Michael’s lorry with rows of bales. With three rows of bales already loaded on Michael’s lorry, the employee then attempted to load a fourth row.

However, while loading the fourth row, some bales in the third row were dislodged and fell off the lorry, fatally crushing Michael. It seems Michael had been securing the other bales onto the lorry before he was crushed.

Janet Atkin, Michael’s partner, said: “Since the loss of Michael, it has left an enormous hole in my life, four years later I’m still traumatised and I don’t sleep well.”

A HSE investigation found it was not custom and practice at the site for bales to be loaded onto lorries by fork lift truck operators at the same time the lorry driver was strapping bales which had previously been loaded onto the lorry flatbed.

Systems were in place for drivers to remain within their cabs, or in some other safe location away from the loading activity, but this was not adhered to at the time of the incident.

Valencia Waste Management has been fined £3m following the death of Michael and another man, Mark Wheatley, in seperate incidents. Mr Wheatley died following an incident on 17 January 2020 at the Dartmoor National Park Conservation Works depot in Bovey Tracey, Devon.

The 31-year-old, who was from Sutton Coldfield but lived in Teignbridge, Devon, was an agency worker on his second week. Mark had been using a lorry to lift two skips at the same time, deploying a method called ‘hot swapping’.

However, the skips were not compatible, as they were of different dimensions, and fell at an angle onto the back of Mark’s lorry. He then got onto the lorry bed to rectify the situation but the skips overbalanced and fatally struck him.

On September 6, the company was ordered to pay £1m for the incident which led to the death of Mr Atkin, and £2m over the incident which led to the death of Mr Wheatley. The company was also ordered to pay combined costs of £21,054.

Alan Hughes, senior enforcement lawyer at HSE, said: “These were two men at different stages of their lives, but the grief and pain across both families is devastating. Both deaths were avoidable. More needs to be done to make the use of vehicles on waste and recycling sites safer. We have a wealth of advice and guidance freely available.”