:00:07. > :00:15.Rubbish - it's everybody's business. It's big business. And it can be a
:00:15. > :00:25.very dangerous business. It cost one worker here his life.
:00:25. > :00:26.
:00:26. > :00:32.You don't expect somebody to go to work and be killed. David's death
:00:32. > :00:35.was probably completely needless. It was tragic. It simply was a
:00:35. > :00:39.death that shouldn't have happened. I will never know what happened in
:00:39. > :00:49.those last few minutes and it will be with me for the rest of my life.
:00:49. > :01:06.
:01:06. > :01:09.This is the story of David Layland. He was a worker here for Biffa -
:01:09. > :01:14.the company that run this massive rubbish landfill on the outskirts
:01:14. > :01:15.of Belfast. His job was to help deal with the waste we throw away.
:01:15. > :01:18.Tonight on Spotlight, we investigate the failings
:01:18. > :01:25.surrounding his death and hear concerns that waste deals made on
:01:25. > :01:31.behalf of our councils could be putting workers' safety at risk.
:01:31. > :01:36.believe there was a culture of haste. The volume of traffic was
:01:36. > :01:39.quite heavy. Performance-related clauses tend to put pressure on
:01:39. > :01:49.people. Or they incentivise people to do that little bit more, to go
:01:49. > :01:55.
:01:55. > :02:00.that little bit quicker You are now husband and wife. This
:02:00. > :02:03.is David's wedding. He and his bride Carol, starting out on a
:02:03. > :02:08.happy life together. Only weeks after they were married,
:02:08. > :02:13.his new wife would go to his funeral. But at the time, his older
:02:13. > :02:17.brother Ken says they were looking to a bright future. He was looking
:02:17. > :02:20.forward to having his first children. And the Christmas that he
:02:20. > :02:24.got married, I think that's what their plans were. They would start
:02:24. > :02:27.talking about names and, you know... He was very much a family man.
:02:27. > :02:32.He'd been working hard, putting in the overtime to save for the
:02:32. > :02:36.couple's dream honeymoon. It was something his parents knew he
:02:36. > :02:40.dearly wanted. He was a big hunk of chunk. He was just a great big
:02:40. > :02:47.beautiful boy. A solid trustworthy young man. He was just gorgeous,
:02:48. > :02:55.you know. He was just such a little prankster and he was just so funny.
:02:55. > :03:00.He got on well with people. He loved his family. He worked hard.
:03:00. > :03:08.He does that all the qualities that any father would love to have been
:03:08. > :03:13.his son. -- In his son. David shared that sense of humour
:03:13. > :03:16.with his workmates at Biffa's Mallusk site. But they also knew
:03:16. > :03:24.his serious side. His concern for safe working had earned him an
:03:24. > :03:28.award from company bosses in 2006. He was the site's health and safety
:03:28. > :03:34.officer, and had also become Site Supervisor. He wanted to work the
:03:34. > :03:39.whole way up to management level. He saw flaws and things that were
:03:39. > :03:42.going on in the site. And he was so proud of himself, you know, with
:03:42. > :03:44.the health and safety and putting everything in place.
:03:45. > :03:48.But his family say that in the weeks before his death, David had
:03:48. > :03:52.begun to worry about safety at the site. He confided to his father
:03:52. > :03:57.that he was thinking of leaving. know he was concerned with
:03:57. > :04:00.machinery and people mixing. I know he was concerned about being able
:04:00. > :04:06.to be in contact better and to be able to monitor the flow of traffic
:04:06. > :04:09.better. David's family claim that he passed
:04:09. > :04:14.those concerns up to management, but that nothing was done about his
:04:14. > :04:24.worries. That's something Biffa denies. It told us it had no record
:04:24. > :04:28.Managing landfill waste is dangerous. It's a terrain of
:04:28. > :04:30.mountains of rubbish dotted with bulldozers and compactors. Vast
:04:30. > :04:35.amounts of waste are heaved and flattened by these massive machines.
:04:35. > :04:37.David would have known the risks that came with his work. John Dyne
:04:37. > :04:40.is a lawyer who has represented companies in the landfill
:04:40. > :04:45.industries. He also sits on a number of trade associations. He
:04:45. > :04:51.hasn't represented Biffa. If you get clipped by a large machine, you
:04:51. > :04:54.are unlikely to get up again. It's not like being tapped by a car.
:04:54. > :05:01.These machines are heavy and unyielding and if you make contact
:05:01. > :05:06.with them, it's extremely serious. You are either going to be killed
:05:06. > :05:12.or suffer severe injury. So the risk is enormous.
:05:12. > :05:16.Tea time on a summer evening in August 2008. David had been at work
:05:16. > :05:19.all day, moving between his office and the landfill face. He had last
:05:19. > :05:23.been seen at lunch time, chatting to a colleague near the tipping
:05:23. > :05:26.area. And though one worker had asked where he was shortly after
:05:26. > :05:32.that, his workmates only realised he was missing when it was time to
:05:32. > :05:36.go home. One of David's colleagues made the call to his brother Ken.
:05:36. > :05:39.knew straight away. If David had have had any problem or walked out
:05:39. > :05:42.of work, I would've been the first one to know about it. I drove
:05:42. > :05:45.straight back, phoned my mate to run round to David's house to bang
:05:45. > :05:48.on the doors and windows to see if he was in.
:05:48. > :05:53.By the time he got to the site, David's workmates had found his
:05:53. > :05:56.shoes and clothes still in his locker. David's family and friends
:05:56. > :06:02.began to arrive and immediately started to search for him at the
:06:02. > :06:09.tipping zone. Neither of the landfill's senior managers was on
:06:09. > :06:11.the site. My heart sank as soon as I seen it. You know the smell of
:06:11. > :06:14.excrement, of rotten flesh, it was... Restaurant waste and it was,
:06:14. > :06:17.it was horrible. It was a horrible place to be.
:06:18. > :06:22.As the light began to fade, they searched over the newly buried
:06:22. > :06:27.waste. David's mother was wearing only flip-flops, and had even found
:06:27. > :06:30.herself close to the site's cliff edge. I just had a deep dread that
:06:30. > :06:35.something was really wrong, because David was so responsible. He would
:06:35. > :06:42.never have gone missing. And there was just something... Something
:06:42. > :06:45.really wrong. I could hear voices shouting, you know, for David. I
:06:45. > :06:54.prayed and prayed that he had slipped and fell and I could find
:06:54. > :06:58.him beside a concrete... Something, anything. And
:06:58. > :07:00.Even into the next day, they were still searching. The emergency
:07:00. > :07:10.services had brought specialist equipment on-site at around
:07:10. > :07:13.
:07:13. > :07:18.At last, some organisations started to come into the site, because
:07:18. > :07:23.nobody knew what to do. I kept praying that if he was under the
:07:23. > :07:27.ground, there would be an air pocket, anything, he would still be
:07:27. > :07:31.there, but it was getting cold. And I thought how can we go home and
:07:31. > :07:40.him still be there? So why had the alarm not been
:07:40. > :07:43.raised earlier on the day David went missing? David Layland hadn't
:07:43. > :07:47.been seen since lunchtime. Some workers had asked where he was, but
:07:47. > :07:48.no call out was made to check for him. They just hadn't realised he
:07:48. > :07:51.was missing. It's since been discovered that
:07:51. > :07:54.Biffa didn't have a system to do a headcount or monitor people's
:07:54. > :07:57.whereabouts on the job. The man who headed up an
:07:57. > :08:04.investigation by the Health and Safety Executive into David's death
:08:04. > :08:09.told a recent inquest that that should have been in place.
:08:09. > :08:13.importance of making sure that those people are accounted for is
:08:13. > :08:19.that with the large vehicles, it is always possible that something can
:08:19. > :08:23.happen, an emergency procedure head count, etc, that should all be in
:08:23. > :08:28.place to monitor where people are added make sure nothing has
:08:28. > :08:30.happened to anybody. -- and to make sure.
:08:30. > :08:33.sure. Biffa told us that it "had never
:08:33. > :08:36.previously had a missing person on any of its sites" and "the company
:08:36. > :08:38.does not accept that missing persons presented a foreseeable
:08:38. > :08:46.risk for which an emergency procedure ought to have been
:08:46. > :08:48.Because no-one realised he was missing, operations at the site
:08:48. > :08:51.weren't stopped. That meant workers kept dumping and compacting rubbish.
:08:51. > :09:01.For the family, that lack of an emergency plan made finding David
:09:01. > :09:05.
:09:05. > :09:09.In my heart, I knew something terrible had happened. But in my
:09:09. > :09:12.head, I knew that I was the only person on that site that was going
:09:12. > :09:15.to be able to do anything proactive. There was a complete lack of
:09:15. > :09:20.management on that site. It was so evident there was not a procedure
:09:20. > :09:25.put in place. Certainly, on the ground, nobody was aware of what
:09:25. > :09:28.steps to take whenever it emerged that somebody was mising. There was
:09:28. > :09:37.a delay here in actually getting to the stage where he was declared
:09:37. > :09:42.missing. There were last sightings and then there was a period of time
:09:42. > :09:47.passed. But it was conceded at the inquest that really nobody was
:09:47. > :09:56.fully aware of exactly what to do. With the search into its second day,
:09:56. > :09:59.emergency teams continued to scour the huge site. At 8pm, nearly 30
:09:59. > :10:02.hours after he'd last been seen, a police officer gathered the family
:10:02. > :10:12.together and broke the news. David's body had been found buried
:10:12. > :10:12.
:10:12. > :10:18.under tonnes of compacted waste. was just cries and screams. And
:10:18. > :10:28.amongst all of them, one of them was mine but... I knew it was going
:10:28. > :10:30.
:10:30. > :10:35.to happen but, when you hear those words, your life just collapses.
:10:35. > :10:39.And it still feels the same way. His body was found in the landfill,
:10:39. > :10:49.70 metres from where he'd last been seen that day. He had suffered
:10:49. > :10:55.horrific injuries. They wanted somebody who would come and
:10:55. > :10:59.identified David's body and I said, I will, it is my child, I gave
:10:59. > :11:05.birth to him and I want to see that it is David. I didn't care what I
:11:05. > :11:11.was going to see. I had to go up and see it, I had to. And if I had
:11:11. > :11:14.to get into a hole and picked by child up, I would have done. But I
:11:14. > :11:18.wasn't allowed. David's family had to try and come
:11:18. > :11:21.to terms with the knowledge that he was dead. What made it even more
:11:21. > :11:24.difficult was that no-one could tell what had caused it. The site
:11:24. > :11:33.was sealed, as police and investigators tried to find clues
:11:34. > :11:38.as to what had happened. He couldn't operate. -- I couldn't
:11:38. > :11:42.operate. I couldn't drive, couldn't think, couldn't sleep. When I
:11:42. > :11:47.closed my eyes, I would see my brother being run over by machinery.
:11:47. > :11:51.Last year, Biffa was convicted for breaking a health and safety law
:11:51. > :11:56.but wasn't found responsible for causing David's death. Exactly how
:11:56. > :11:58.he died has never been established. The judge said the dangers on the
:11:58. > :12:03.site were both office and recognised and there was a
:12:03. > :12:06.substantial failure on the part of up Biffa's health and safety
:12:06. > :12:10.measures. So what Biffa did in theory it was different to what
:12:10. > :12:13.went on in practice. They had a very good policies and procedures
:12:14. > :12:18.and you would expect, with a bit well run company like that, that
:12:18. > :12:23.this sort of issue that the rows on the ground would have been better
:12:23. > :12:33.managed. So it did come as a surprise that things were in such a
:12:33. > :12:35.
:12:35. > :12:45.Biffa pleaded guilty in for not maintaining a safe place of work on
:12:45. > :12:50.the day that David's died. The court heard that David's there
:12:50. > :12:55.could not be attributed to anything specific. Because nobody knows how
:12:55. > :13:02.David died, it is difficult to ascertain which one of the
:13:02. > :13:07.deficiencies caused his death. John Dayne says companies have to be
:13:07. > :13:13.robust in making sure that procedures are adhered to. What's
:13:13. > :13:18.it brings home is that you can have all the systems in the world, but
:13:18. > :13:22.you have to police them and make sure people followed the procedures
:13:22. > :13:28.and the cycles. As likely explanation for David Layland's
:13:28. > :13:33.death was that he was hit by a large vehicle. Industry experts
:13:33. > :13:43.agree this is a key raw that. Potentially fatal accident before
:13:43. > :13:44.
:13:44. > :13:50.they happen. What I'd would say is that the movement of vehicles and
:13:50. > :13:55.the management of Transport are probably the most important single
:13:55. > :14:00.factor. What makes it so Tup is that due to the constant dumping,
:14:00. > :14:07.the shape of the ground is always changing. Then there is the traffic.
:14:07. > :14:12.On the day of the accident, 130 lorries went through the gates over
:14:12. > :14:22.10 hours at the Mallusk site. That is the equivalent of one every five
:14:22. > :14:23.
:14:23. > :14:28.minutes. Then, as now, they still holds the contract for 11 councils
:14:28. > :14:35.around Belfast. In that contract they can be fined for taking too
:14:35. > :14:38.long to get off the site. Clauses such as this are widely used in the
:14:39. > :14:45.industry, but concern has been raised about the potential effects
:14:45. > :14:49.it could have. The volume of traffic was heavy. Any occasion I
:14:49. > :14:54.have been that there had been accused of vehicles waiting to
:14:54. > :14:59.enter and exit the site. These concerns have never been directly
:14:59. > :15:05.linked to David's death, but the TV investigator says they are a bad
:15:05. > :15:10.idea for the industry. difficulty that would give rise to
:15:10. > :15:16.his if there is any slowing down in the system, drivers could have the
:15:16. > :15:21.perception that it is worth taking increased risks. People operating
:15:21. > :15:31.the sight could think it would be worth taking increased risks.
:15:31. > :15:32.
:15:32. > :15:37.Biffa says it does not accept that and turnaround clauses are standard.
:15:37. > :15:41.At the site, lorries would roll in and pass over a bridge. They would
:15:41. > :15:46.go down to a Horn Road and be held in a queue of traffic lights. When
:15:46. > :15:51.the traffic light sago, they move into position and NT their lorries
:15:51. > :15:55.before driving off again. But on the day David died, that traffic
:15:56. > :16:04.lights were not working. These - and this was one of the biggest
:16:04. > :16:14.failings levelled against the company. My opinion is the traffic
:16:14. > :16:16.
:16:16. > :16:21.lights were the linchpin. The purpose of them is to hold the
:16:21. > :16:26.lorries on the boat and not let them on to the Tipping face. Biffa
:16:26. > :16:30.accepts that the lights were broken, but say they are not necessary to
:16:30. > :16:35.facilitate the safe movement of traffic on site of this nature. It
:16:35. > :16:38.also said traffic lights are not normally used on land foresight and
:16:38. > :16:45.visitors have to the site are understood to follow and signals
:16:45. > :16:54.which are standard practice. Standards -- standard practice or
:16:54. > :17:01.not, there were traffic lights at the Mallusk site. Having no
:17:01. > :17:04.contingency for them breaking down is unacceptable. I don't understand
:17:04. > :17:08.why a reserved set of traffic lights could not have been held on
:17:08. > :17:13.that site, given their importance. The inquest heard that the light
:17:13. > :17:21.had been broken for several days. With the light out of action,
:17:21. > :17:24.workers on the site had to use hand signals and eye-contact. They do
:17:24. > :17:30.that from inside their own bulldozers. The there is nothing
:17:30. > :17:34.intrinsically wrong in using hand signals, provided the drivers of
:17:34. > :17:38.all the vehicles who are affected by the hand signals understand what
:17:38. > :17:48.they mean. Obviously, a bread light means stop and a green light means
:17:48. > :18:00.
:18:00. > :18:10.go. -- a red light. That system is fraught with complications. Biffa's
:18:10. > :18:10.
:18:10. > :18:17.position remains that hand signals are a safe way of working and staff
:18:17. > :18:23.are trained accordingly. It is the back-up system in and has been
:18:23. > :18:27.standard practice for many years. Biffa sake that traffic lights are
:18:28. > :18:33.no longer used at the Mallusk site and the they had been replaced by a
:18:33. > :18:43.two-way radios. There were designated safe areas where people
:18:43. > :18:49.and machines were kept separated. On the date David died, a safe zone
:18:49. > :18:52.is where he was last seen. They inquest heard that workers were
:18:52. > :18:56.taking short cuts across the site they should not have been using.
:18:56. > :19:02.They have got designated pathways and the workers who were supposed
:19:02. > :19:07.to be using them rather than taking short cuts should have been
:19:07. > :19:11.controlled, monitored and if needs be, disciplined because ultimately,
:19:11. > :19:17.it is human nature to take a short cut, but it is all about the
:19:17. > :19:27.culture and ethos of the organisation. Things are done for a
:19:27. > :19:33.reason and if the workers are not using those pop ways then that is a
:19:33. > :19:35.serious matter. A lack of both enforcement and a simple
:19:35. > :19:42.alternative was another basic flaw in the way the site was working
:19:42. > :19:46.that day. There were not robust systems in place to monitor how
:19:46. > :19:53.people were going around the workplace. They should not have
:19:53. > :19:59.walked. They should have been taken around in a jeep. The HSE said BG
:19:59. > :20:04.that was usually used was offside on the day of David's death.
:20:04. > :20:14.Workers were walking across the site and taking routes that came
:20:14. > :20:21.
:20:21. > :20:31.close to active tipping areas. Company macro -- Biffa responded by
:20:31. > :20:34.
:20:34. > :20:41.More than three years after David's death it is still uncertain how he
:20:41. > :20:49.came to die that day. Despite finding flaws in Biffa's system,
:20:49. > :20:59.the Health and Safety Commission -- Health and Safety Executive did not
:20:59. > :20:59.
:20:59. > :21:04.request any changes to be made. failings were serious. Essentially
:21:04. > :21:10.the land full operation is a transport operation. The failings
:21:10. > :21:17.were serious because the control measures needed was so simple.
:21:17. > :21:21.Biffa says it has made positive changes at the Mallusk site,
:21:21. > :21:25.including head counts, CCTV and more attention to traffic
:21:25. > :21:32.management. So how dangerous is it a working waist? In terms of being
:21:32. > :21:40.struck by a vehicle, or waste- management is a risky category of
:21:40. > :21:49.work. The HSE say over the last five years one in at 700 workers in
:21:49. > :21:53.that category of has been injured. Jun macro says the safety record of
:21:53. > :21:58.the waste industry should be seen in perspective. Compared to other
:21:58. > :22:04.industries such as construction and agriculture, I would suggest the
:22:04. > :22:14.record is quite good, but that is relative. Biffa has been convicted
:22:14. > :22:15.
:22:15. > :22:20.five times and the last decade up to press on its sites across the UK.
:22:20. > :22:27.In total it has been fined over half-a-million pounds. David's
:22:27. > :22:34.father said the �60,000 Biffa was fined after the death of his son
:22:34. > :22:42.was not even enough. That is not even a slap on the breast. How
:22:42. > :22:45.trivial is a person's life? find was one of the largest imposed
:22:45. > :22:49.for a health and safety breach. Finds in England for similar
:22:49. > :22:54.offences can be bigger and that is something that concerns the Union
:22:54. > :22:58.David was part of. It made me wonder is the value of a life in
:22:58. > :23:05.Northern Ireland any less than that other life in the UK? A do you
:23:05. > :23:11.think it would focus companies' minds a little more if fines were
:23:11. > :23:21.may be higher? I think it would. There is no doubt about that. The
:23:21. > :23:24.
:23:24. > :23:29.only thing I would say it is the ability to pay. But if the fines
:23:29. > :23:35.were on a parity with those in the UK, it would make a difference.
:23:35. > :23:39.Earlier this month, David's father bought his concerns to the
:23:39. > :23:44.Environmental Health Committee at Belfast City Council. It seems to
:23:44. > :23:51.be a purely financial matter. The council are trying to save as much
:23:51. > :23:54.money as they can and to be honest, I don't think they take into
:23:54. > :24:02.consideration the health and safety aspect and the effect it has on
:24:02. > :24:09.people. Despite the death of David Layland, the Arc21 house awarded a
:24:09. > :24:13.fresh contract to Biffa to process the waist. Belfast City Council say
:24:13. > :24:19.they received assurances from Arc21 that health and safety issues have
:24:19. > :24:24.been taken into account. Arc21 is the consortium of 11 councils in
:24:24. > :24:34.the Belfast area under which Biffa operates its landfill site at
:24:34. > :24:58.
:24:58. > :25:06.Ian John Dayne's experience, things need to change. People who supply
:25:06. > :25:09.services do not want to have prosecutions or any form of a mark
:25:09. > :25:14.against their reputation of character because it is not good
:25:14. > :25:19.for business. Its ability to tender for contracts, local authorities
:25:19. > :25:25.and so forth, this is not great news from a commercial point of
:25:25. > :25:32.view. I am sorry to look at the commerciality side, but
:25:32. > :25:39.fundamentally, any prosecution scores against you. In the tender
:25:39. > :25:47.competition last year, Biffa came a with the lowest price for the Arc21
:25:47. > :25:51.group. For Biffa, the contract will be worth �5.4 million. But the new
:25:52. > :25:55.contract still contains a turnaround clause. Went Derek
:25:55. > :26:03.visited the council he said he was warmly received, but his message
:26:03. > :26:12.was clear. I said to them about their part in issuing tenders. Stop
:26:12. > :26:17.looking at how much a money you can save by going for company a instead
:26:17. > :26:23.of company B. If you do go for the cheaper one, look at their health
:26:24. > :26:31.and safety record. Arc21 says the 30 minute turnaround clause is not
:26:31. > :26:36.unusual and it typically takes a contract to 16 minutes to way and
:26:36. > :26:40.NT the waist. Biffa does not think there is a problem either, same
:26:40. > :26:49.turnaround times were not considered to be a safety issue.
:26:49. > :26:56.But the industry lawyer says such clauses can produce unsafe habits.
:26:56. > :27:01.Certainly I would frown against any performance related clauses because
:27:01. > :27:10.they do then tend to put pressure, I did they put pressure on people
:27:10. > :27:16.what incentive eyes people to do more to get quicker and possibly to
:27:16. > :27:19.bend the rules to get the job done picker. I don't like them
:27:19. > :27:24.personally, but I can't sit here acrid to seize them because the
:27:24. > :27:34.feedback I am getting from my clients are they do not see that as
:27:34. > :27:47.
:27:47. > :27:52.a particular issue will problem for The likely it -- the likelihood is
:27:52. > :28:00.I will go to my grave not knowing what happened to David. This is the
:28:00. > :28:05.closest I can get to him. Biffa describe David as a well-liked and
:28:05. > :28:12.fallible member of the team and gays sincere condolences to his
:28:12. > :28:18.family. What Ken and the families say they want to hear is an apology
:28:18. > :28:25.for the failures in its systems when David died. Whenever you smile
:28:25. > :28:29.with your kids, there is a massive pain because you think of David. I
:28:29. > :28:35.have not something I can never get back. We cannot get beyond it. It
:28:35. > :28:40.has completely destroyed us. We cannot move on. How can we ever
:28:40. > :28:44.have moved on? The pain of losing David will never leave his family
:28:44. > :28:48.and the waste industry here it faces questions of its own. Clearly