The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has said it is working on “concluding the criminal investigation” into the 2016 death of five workers at a metal recycling site in Nechells, Birmingham.
In July 2016, a wall collapsed at the site, which is run by by Shredmet Limited and owned by West Midlands-based business Hawkeswood Metal Recycling.
Emergency crews and lifting equipment at the Hawkeswood site in 2016
Five workers were pronounced dead at the scene while a sixth was taken to hospital with serious leg injuries.
Activities at the site included ferrous and non-ferrous metals recycling and the operation of a fragmentiser plant.
In November 2018, an inquest jury concluded that the five men – four of whom were from Gambia and one from Senegal – were accidentally crushed to death after the “foreseeable risk” of a wall collapse in the area they were working was not identified (see letsrecycle.com story).
In a statement given to letsrecycle.com a spokesperson for the HSE, which took over the investigation in December 2017, said: “Our investigation is still ongoing, and we will inform the families and other parties when it is concluded. Since the inquests concluded a year ago our time and energy has been fully focussed on reviewing the case, bringing together evidence heard by the coroner and concluding the criminal investigation.”
BBC
This morning, the BBC ran an article on its website which included an interview with the wife and eldest son of one of the victims, as well as the family’s lawyers.
The report explained that Ousmane Diaby, who was 39 when he died in the incident, had moved to England for work opportunities from Barcelona. He was originally from the Gambia.
Our time and energy has been fully focussed on reviewing the case”
The family hit out at what they perceive as a “lack of justice” so far, while Lawrence Waterman, chairman of the British Safety Council, said in the report that the HSE has been under-resourced in the last decade, which explained the “slowness” of the investigation.
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Source: letsrecycle.com Metal
