Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 16th January 2025 Issue no. 1145
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Arriva and cleaning firm fined after worker killed at bus depot
A national bus company and a commercial cleaning firm have been fined after a "much loved young man" was killed at a depot in Hemel Hempstead.
Albin Trstena, from Tottenham, was working for Cordant Cleaning, when he was hit by a reversing bus being driven by a colleague in November 2019. The 25-year-old had been working in the yard of Arriva's Hemel Hempstead bus depot when the vehicle was reversed out of the wash down area. He sustained fatal injuries.
By law, people near a route where vehicles pass must be kept safe. HSE guidance on separating pedestrians and vehicles in the workplace sets our clear steps those responsible should take.
An investigation by the Health & Safety Executive found that Arriva failed to properly assess the risk of vehicle-pedestrian conflict, and both they and Cordant Cleaning, subsequently known as CLC Realisations, failed to implement a suitable system of work to control this risk.
There were also insufficient measures in place to protect pedestrians from vehicles being moved around the depot and to ensure that walkways within the perimeter of the yard were being utilised.
CLC Realisations of Wellington Street, Leeds (in administration) offered no plea but was found guilty of breaching Section 2(1) of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 and fined a nominal £1,000.
Arriva Kent Thameside, of Doxford International Business Park, Sunderland, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 and has been fined £32,000 and ordered to pay costs of £22,392.
"This tragic incident led to the avoidable death of a much loved young man," says HSE inspector Roxanne Barker. "There was a failure to undertake safety measures to segregate vehicles and pedestrians.
"They also failed to properly consider who was responsible for determining and implementing suitable measures to ensure safe working practices when contracting out some of the activities performed within a shared workplace."
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