HSE assumes lead role in investigating recycling plant fatalities

United Kingdom – Local police have handed the UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) primary responsibility for investigating the deaths of five workers at a Birmingham metals recycling plant in July last year.

Aged between 40 and 56, the workers were killed when a 15-foot materials partitioning wall collapsed on them at the site run by Hawkeswood Metal Recycling in the Nechells area of the city.

‘This remains a criminal investigation into the five deaths,’ explains Geoffrey Brown, principal inspector leading the investigation. ‘We will be considering whether there were any breaches of health and safety law relevant to the circumstances of this tragic event. We will of course keep the families updated as our investigation continues.’

The HSE is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety.