A waste management and plant hire company has been fined after a worker was fatally crushed between two vehicles while refuelling.

Derby Crown Court heard how 39-year-old Matthew Lambert was refuelling his road sweeper at the yard of Leedale. The refuelling point on the vehicle was at the rear, and it was while he was refuelling that a tipper lorry reversed into him. Lambert was crushed between the two vehicles and died of catastrophic head injuries.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the incident which occurred on November 26, 2013, found there were no marked or identified vehicle and pedestrian routes. There were no rules or control of reversing manoeuvres, and the lighting at the site was poor and below the required standard.

Leedale, of Heage Road Industrial Estate, Heage Road, Ripley, Derbyshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, and was fined £300,000 and ordered to pay costs of £50,737.