Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 25th April 2024 Issue no. 1111
Your industry news - first
The original and best - for over 20 years!
We strongly recommend viewing Cleanzine full size in your web browser. Click our masthead above to visit our website version.
Cleaning firm fined over porter's death at Bolton hospital
A cleaning company has been fined £175,000 after a hospital porter was killed by an industrial waste compactor in Bolton. Peter Bonomy's neck was broken when the lid on the large metal container slammed down on him at the Royal Bolton Hospital in Farnworth in 2006.
His employer, ISS Mediclean, was prosecuted by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) after an investigation found the company had allowed porters to load the waste compactor in an unsafe manner.
Manchester Crown Court heard the 58-year-old from Little Lever in Bolton had been collecting waste cardboard from around the hospital. He was found by a colleague with his head and arms under the lid of one of the compactors.
The HSE investigation concluded that the most likely explanation for Mr Bonomy's death was that he leaned against a lever while leaning over the waste compactor, causing the lid to snap down.
The manufacturer's recommendations for the compactor stated that it should be loaded from the front, away from the controls, but the court was told it was standard practice for porters to load it from the side.
Mr Bonomy had been employed by the company since July 2005. He had recently returned to work after taking time off to nurse his wife through terminal cancer before her death.
Tony Slade, one of Peter's closest friends, said:
"Peter was a friend of mine for over 15 years. His friends will take consolation if his death spurs companies to ensure that such incidents do not happen again."
ISS Mediclean, part of the ISS group which employs more than 43,500 people around the world, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974 after failing to provide a safe system of work for its employees.
The company, of Albert Drive in Woking, Surrey, was fined £175,000 and ordered to pay £42,000 in prosecution costs on 30th March 2012.
Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Rose Leese-Weller, said:
"This is a tragic case which led to the death of man who had only returned to work just over a year earlier following his wife's death from cancer.
"Peter Bonomy's employer, ISS Mediclean, should have done more to make sure he and his colleagues were using the waste compactors safely. The lids snapped down instantly when the levers were operated so he had no chance of getting out of the way.
"The industrial waste compactors clearly had the potential to put lives in danger so the company should have carried out a proper risk assessment to make sure its employees stayed safe."
Picture shows: The industrial waste compactor which caused Peter Bonomy's death
5th April 2012