Skip Hire Industry News
Plant Driver Found Guilty of Skip Death
A heavy plant operator has been found guilty of killing a young bricklayer in a building site accident in Plymouth.
Reece French, 20, from Plymouth, died when a skip weighing 280kg (617lb) fell on his head in Cattedown in 2007.
The skip hire was being lifted using specialist equipment with a telescopic arm operated by Nigel Herring, 35, of Southway Drive, Plymouth.
He was found guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of gross negligence at Plymouth Crown Court.
He had denied the charge.
The court was told Herring, who was working for construction company Kier Western at the East End Community Village Enterprise Centre, had not followed safety procedures and had been grossly negligent when the accident happened on 14 September.
When the jury’s unanimous verdict was read out, Mr French’s mother, Denise, called out “thank God” and burst into tears. Herring remained impassive.
The judge, Mr Justice Tomlinson, released Herring on conditional bail, but warned him he could face a custodial sentence. He will be sentenced within two weeks.
Kier Western declined to comment.
January 9, 2010 at 2:08 pm | Skip Hire Industry News | No comment
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Skip Driver is a Hot Shot
A man driving a waste disposal truck left prison guards at Dublin’s Mountjoy Prison gobsmacked on Monday after he handed them a loaded gun.
The truck driver was picking up a skip from inside the jail when guards asked him if he had any prohibited items.
He got out a leather holster containing a Walther semi-automatic pistol and 14 rounds of ammunition.
“It is fair to say that everyone was gobsmacked,” one source told the Irish Times newspaper.
The source noted that the man, a Romanian national, did not attempt to smuggle the gun into the prison.
The prison officers confiscated the weapon and alerted gardai at Mountjoy station who arrested the man.
It is understood that he may have registered the gun in Romania before moving to Ireland.
Arrested
Gardaí are investigating whether he was carrying the gun for his own personal protection following an incident in his home country.
A Garda spokesman confirmed on Monday that a man in his early 30s in possession of a firearm had been arrested on the North Circular Road under Section 30 of the Offences against the State Act.
In a statement, the Irish Prison Service said that a gun and two magazines containing 14 rounds had been found during a routine search.
“The Garda were called and the driver was taken away for questioning. The truck was impounded for technical examination,” the statement said.
January 7, 2010 at 2:27 pm | Skip Hire Industry News | No comment
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Sellafield Coughs Up More Compo
The company that runs the Sellafield decommissioning has been fined £75,000 and ordered to pay £26,100 in costs after two workers were exposed to radiation.
The contractors were drilling through a concrete floor contaminated with plutonium in a waste facility that Sellafield was converting into offices when the July 2007 incident occurred.
Carlisle Crown Court was told that the men were exposed to higher than anticipated levels of radiation, though neither workers suffered any immediate illness or injury.
His Honour Judge Batty QC handed down the fine warning that Sellafield needed to have adequate controls in place to protect workers and that the outcome could have been much worse.
But he did note the site had a good safety record and the company had acted on the problem as soon as it was identified.
The prosecution was brought by the Health and Safety Executive and the firm pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to failing to discharge its duty under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
January 6, 2010 at 9:23 am | Skip Hire Industry News | No comment
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Dustbin Killer Jailed
Jackie Timmins and Andrew Hardie
An epileptic man who ran over and killed a British couple with his rearload dustbin lorry has been jailed for at least 20 years.
Auvryn Scarlett, 54, was given 20 years to life for each of the murders of Jackie Timmins, 47, and Andrew Hardie, 48, of Yeovil, Somerset.
They died instantly after being hit by the American’s truck in New York in February 2008. Judge Richard Carruthers said Scarlett’s decision not to take his medication made him a “timebomb”.
December 6, 2009 at 3:51 pm | Skip Hire Industry News | No comment
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