A waste management company in County Durham, UK, has been fined after a young worker was seriously injured when he was struck and run over by an excavator just two weeks into his job.
Farm XS (Northern) Ltd, based in Barnard Castle, was sentenced at Teesside Magistrates’ Court on 5 August 2025 following the incident at its Staindrop Road site on 29 January 2024. The 24-year-old employee was hit from behind by the excavator and run over, sustaining fractures to both feet.
The company admitted breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, which requires employers to safeguard, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of their employees. The prosecution, brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), was led by enforcement lawyer Iain Jordan and paralegal officer Helen Jacob. Farm XS (Northern) was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay costs of £4,285.
An HSE investigation revealed that the injured worker had been operating close to moving vehicles without any physical barriers to separate him from machinery. No risk assessment or safe system of work was in place to protect pedestrians from vehicle movements. HSE guidance states that pedestrians and vehicles must be kept apart during manual waste-sorting operations, and that employers must ensure traffic routes can be used safely without endangering nearby staff.
After the hearing, HSE Inspector Richard McMullen said: “The outcome could have been much worse. The failures that day left a worker with serious injuries. This incident was easily avoidable by introducing control measures such as vehicle segregation and safe refuges.” He added: “This should be a reminder to the waste industry of the need to consider workplace transport risks and to introduce appropriate control measures to separate vehicles and pedestrians.”
