£160k fine for recycling firm after worker crushed by 400kg cardboard
A Black Country recycling firm has been fined £160,000 after a worker was left fighting for his life when he was crushed by 400kg of cardboard.
Parvez Ahmed, aged 49, was seriously injured and placed into a coma after suffering a cracked skull and a brain haemorrhage.
It happened after bale stacks of cardboard came down on top of him at Arrow Recycling in Smethwick.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found the firm failed to establish a safe way to stack bales.
The instability of the bales resulted in the cardboard being unstable, Wolverhampton Magistrates Court was told.
Arrow Recycling, based at Premier Works on Cornwall Road, pleaded guilty of breaching Regulation 10 of the Work at Height Regulations Act 2005 and was hit with the six-figure fine.
The company was also ordered to pay costs of £2,917.
Mr Ahmed spent 10 days in a coma following the incident on April 22, 2016.
Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Mahesh Mahey said Mr Ahmed would not have been seriously injured if safe systems of work had been in place.
He said: "This incident highlights the need for employers to devise and implement safe systems of work in relation to storage of baled materials.
"If the company had safe systems of work in place Mr Ahmed would not have been seriously injured."