Risk, Health and Safety Information

HSE Prosecutions round-up: 

Recycling firm fined £200,000 after employee struck by vehicle

A national recycling firm was fined after an employee was struck by a 7.5 tonne telehandler. 

Preston Crown Court heard that Sita UK Limited failed to provide adequate segregation between pedestrians and moving vehicles at a waste transfer station in Darwen, Lancashire.

As an employee walked across an outside plastics hand sorting area, he passed behind a stationary telehandler. The telehandler began to reverse and struck the worker who was knocked to the ground and then run over by the rear wheel of the vehicle. His resulting injuries caused him to be hospitalised for two months.

The HSE prosecuting told the Court the company had identified the risks but failed to put in place suitable controls to stop people being hit by vehicles.

Sita UK Limited of Grenfell Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and was fined £200,000 with £11,998 costs.

Logistics Company fined after man injured at work

A logistics company was fined £20,000 after a worker was hit by a fork-lift truck in a busy yard and suffered head injuries.

The HSE investigated and prosecuted UCH Logistics Limited over its failure to segregate vehicles and people in a yard where the danger of such an incident happening was entirely foreseeable.

CCTV footage from the site, in Staines, Middlesex, showed fork-lift trucks loading and unloading vans, with pedestrians routinely weaving between them.

Andrew Elliss, an employee of UCH Logistics, was hit by a reversing fork-lift truck in September 2014.

Redhill Magistrates’ Court was told Mr Elliss, now 53, from Isleworth, sustained head injuries that continue to have an effect on him to this day.

UCH Logistics Limited told HSE the yard had been resurfaced a few years earlier and no markings were put in place to segregate vehicles and people.

UCH Logistics Limited, of Skylink House, Stanwell Moor Road, Staines, Middlesex, pleaded guilty to breaching the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 – specifically Regulations 17(1). It was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay HSE costs of £942.40.

Contractor’s neglect of safety leads to £16,000 in fines

A specialist piling contractor has been fined after it was found to be operating a powerful rig without a safety guard around the rotating auger.

Sevenoaks Magistrates’ Court heard how an HSE inspector made an inspection of a site in Maidstone, Kent, in December 2014 and witnessed the piling rig in operation without a safety guard.

The HSE had previously visited three sites where the same company, Southern Piling Limited, had been carrying out work and had raised concerns about the guarding standards on each occasion. After this latest visit, HSE was told that the machine had been in use for at least two-and-a-half weeks without the guard.

Southern Piling Limited, of The Pagets, Newick, Lewes, East Sussex, was fined a total of £16,000 and ordered to pay nearly £5,000 in costs after pleading guilty to breaches of Regulation 11(1)(a) of PUWER 1998 and Regulation 13(2) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007.

Steel Frame Company fined for safety failings

A company that erects steel frames has been fined for safety failings while cladding a steel framed building.

Swindon Magistrates’ Court heard how on 15 May 2015, Industrial Steel Frames Limited of Derby was visited by a Health and Safety Inspector who found that the company was not taking suitable measures to prevent falling from height, putting their workers at risk of serious injury.

On Monday 5 October 2015, Industrial Steel Frames Limited, of Church Street, Ilkeston, was fined a total of £15,000, and ordered to pay £580 in costs after pleading guilty to an offence under Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.