Worker who died at Milton keynes recycling centre is named

The man who was crushed to death at Milton Keynes recycling centre has been named as Polish-born Rafal Swiadek.

Traumatised workers have described how they saw the 42-year-old seemingly “step into” giant machinery at the city’s famous recycling factory.

A source told the Citizen how Rafal finished his shift, had a shower, then appeared to “calmly” step into the crusher.

Police and health and safety officials are now scouring CCTV footage and examining crushing and shredding equipment to discover whether the death was due to an accident, safety breaches or suicide.

Meanwhile workers who witnessed the incident have a been offered counselling from experts.

“It is not a sight we will ever forget. It was horrific,” said one.

Rafal had worked at the factory for seven years and had family members working there too.

Police were called to the Old Wolverton Materials Recycling Facility, known as MRF, at 5.30pm on Monday.

They swiftly ruled out foul play or suspicious circumstances, and an inquest into the death is due to open tomorrow.

Experts at the Health and Safety Executive are continuing to investigate. A spokesman said: “We will look at the what happened, why it happened and whether it could have been stopped.”

Stuart Wood, Viridor’s Regional Manager said:“The death of Rafal has had a real impact across the whole site team. Rafal had been a recycling operative with Viridor for over seven years. His loss will be felt deeply by us all and all of our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends at this time.”