HSE Prosecutions round-up: 

Roofing firm fined for safety failings

A roofing firm and a senior manager of the company have been fined for safety failings after an employee suffered life changing injuries when he fell through a fragile roof. 

Worthing Magistrates’ Court heard how in January 2015 Practical Cladding Solutions Limited of Southampton was appointed by Styropack UK Limited to cut a hole in an industrial roof and clad an extension when a 25-year-old employee fell through an unprotected fragile roof light next to the work area. 

The worker sustained numerous injuries - breaking four ribs and cutting both lungs. His pelvis, hip and groin bone were fractured and his back was broken in several places. He spent 10 days in intensive care and six weeks in hospital. 

Practical Cladding Solutions Limited, of Calmore Industrial Estate, Testwood, Totton was fined a total of £9,000, after pleading guilty to offences under Regulations 4(1)(a), (b) and (c) of the Work at Height Regulations. 

Anthony Hibbard, senior manager of the company, was fined a total of £3,000, after pleading guilty to the same offences. Costs of £1192 were awarded to the HSE who brought the case.

Steel firm fined following worker’s death

A steel supply company has been fined following the death of an employee who was crushed by a two tonne steel beam at a warehouse in Cardiff. 

Mark Walker, a 37-year-old from Newport, suffered fatal injuries as he was trying to move a steel beam onto a conveyor at the warehouse in Trident Industrial Park, Cardiff on 24 June 2012. 

The incident was investigated by the HSE which prosecuted Mr Walker’s employer, CMC Uk Ltd, at Cardiff Crown Court.

The court heard Mr Walker was working alone and was to use the computer controlled saw for the first time. He had to separate H-beam columns that were stacked ready to be put on the conveyor that fed the saw. 

The stacked columns were 16 metres long and weighed more than two tonnes each. He lifted one end of a column with an overhead crane and put two wooden bearers in the middle while he got between the columns to pull the hoist chains through. While he was doing this, the wooden bearers gave way and the top column fell on Mr Walker. He died at the scene. 

HSE’s investigation found there were no instructions on how to split and lift the columns safely and Mr Walker, an experienced warehouseman, had not been given training for this task. 

There was no safe system of work for splitting or separating columns. The safest way would be to separate them at floor level or in a purpose built rack before placing them on the conveyor table.

CMC UK Ltd of Trident Industrial Park, Glass Avenue, Cardiff, pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety at work legislation and was fined a total of £112,500 and ordered to pay £96,000.in costs. 

HSE Myth Busters:

Small children must be able to walk to participate in river boat ride for health and safety reasons

Issue

The enquirer was at a Zoo with her baby and was told "babes in arms" could not participate on the lazy river boat trip as they cannot walk, and children cannot be carried on board 'for health and safety reasons.' She then watched other small children (toddlers) get carried onto the boat instead of walking. When this was questioned the operator said that is the guidance given by the ride manufacturers.

Panel opinion

This is an interesting case and the panel feel the need to highlight several issues here:
The ride was very new and the operators chose to follow the manufacturer’s advice in the early days of operation which was sensible. The importance of explaining the reasons behind certain requirements at every stage in the process is key here. The concern which the manufacturer sought to address was that everyone accessing the boat must be able to walk on and off the boat for stability reasons. This was then passed on via inadequate communication and training as "no babes in arms". So, whilst the ride operator was correct in refusing the enquirer access to the ride, the true concern was violated by allowing others whose children could walk to carry their children onto the boat!
The panel is pleased to hear that the Zoo is now looking for ways to ensure as many people enjoy the ride as possible whilst continuing to satisfy the true stability requirement based on their own experience of operating the ride and further discussion with the manufacturer. 

Customer asked to leave DIY store after refusal to remove toddler from store trolley

Issue

Customer asked to leave DIY store after refusal to remove toddler from coin operated store trolley with no child seat.

Panel opinion

The panel believe that the DIY store has taken a responsible approach to the issue and provides sensible advice and support to their customers. The company’s products are typically heavy construction materials and the risk to children riding in trolleys in this environment is a real one. The store is working with others to find trolleys which are designed to carry children as well as their merchandise but in the meantime their offer of assistance to parents with children is a sensible and considerate alternative.

A reminder on safe working practices this week…

 

 

HSE Prosecutions round-up: 

Builder in court over absence of welfare facilities

A building contractor, Phillip Affleck, has been fined for serious health breaches and lack of welfare facilities on one of his building sites.

Trafford Magistrates’ Court heard that the HSE received a complaint from a member of the public in May 2014 about the conditions on the site where work was being carried out to convert a disused NHS premises.

The HSE investigation found access to the construction site was restricted and had a lack of both health and safety provisions and welfare facilities. Workers were entering the building via ladders and planks. Work was stopped whilst Mr Affleck arranged for scaffolding to be erected to make access to the building safe.

Dust from sandblasting activities was found to be affecting other workers on the site and inadequate protection had been provided. Workers were expected to carry out tasks such as groundworks and bricklaying but were unable to wash their hands to remove any contamination.

An Improvement Notice requiring the provision of sanitary, washing and rest facilities was issued.

On Friday 18 September 2015, Mr Affleck of Legh Street, Golborne pleaded guilty to breaches of Regulation 22 of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 and Regulation 7 of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002. He was fined a total £4,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,495. 

Building contractor sentenced over multiple safety failings

A builder has been sentenced after pleading guilty to multiple health and safety issues at a site in Altrincham where he was carrying out a shop conversion into three apartments.

Peter Lawrence was running the building works at a shop on Kingsway in Altrincham.  The project involved the full strip out and refurbishment of the ground floor shop and two upper floors to convert into three apartments.

Mr Lawrence was in control of all construction works and acted as builder and project manager employing numerous trades and labourers on site throughout the refurbishment.

The site first came to HSE’s attention in November 2013 following a complaint about possible asbestos disturbance on site.  Between this visit and April 2014 a number of HSE inspectors visited the site to investigate safety concerns and deal with the risks presented by Mr Lawrence’s work. A number of issues were identified during the visit including unsafe work at height, unsafe scaffolding, issues relating to asbestos, fire safety failings, unsafe electric supply, a lack of welfare facilities and safety equipment.

The HSE inspectors served three Prohibition Notices and four Improvement Notices, along with two Notifications of Contravention during the three site visits.

On 18 September 2015, Trafford Magistrates’ Court heard that some of the issues had been satisfactorily dealt with by Mr Lawrence following HSE’s intervention but that he had failed to comply with two Improvement Notices regarding fire safety on site.

Mr Lawrence was charged with two counts of failing to comply with an Improvement Notice, one count of failing to provide adequate firefighting and fire alarm equipment on site and one count of failing to plan, manage and monitor construction work so that it was carried out in a safe manner.

Mr Peter Lawrence of Kingsway, Altrincham pleaded guilty at Trafford Magistrates Court to breaching Regulations 13(2) and 41(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 and two breaches of Section 33(1)(g) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and was fined £8,000 with £4,802 costs and a victim surcharge of £120.
 

Scaffolder’s serious safety failings captured on film

A scaffolder has been prosecuted after he repeatedly allowed unsafe work at height to be carried out on a busy London street.

Greg Pearson, from Enfield, trading as ‘Pearsons Scaffolding’, was prosecuted by the HSE after a member of the public raised concerns about scaffolding work being carried out on Tavistock Street in central London.

She was so concerned for the safety of passers-by and workers on the fifteen metre high scaffold that three separate complaints including photographs and videos were passed to HSE.

HSE visited the site twice and found the incomplete scaffold to be poorly erected and unsafe work practices were putting workers at risk. No measures had been taken to prevent any falling scaffolding equipment hitting members of the public below.

HSE served a Prohibition Notice ordering work to be stopped until the scaffold was made safe, but Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard that Pearson ignored this and other warnings, carrying on regardless.

The court also heard Pearson failed to respond when required to produce documents for inspection during the investigation, hindering the HSE’s efforts to ensure future work was carried out safely at other sites. Pearsons Scaffolding’s involvement at the site only ended when a second Prohibition Notice was served and the project’s Principal Contractor decided to take on another scaffolder to complete the work.

Greg Pearson, 33, of South Street, Enfield, pleaded guilty to two breaches of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 (6(3), 10(1)) and was given two suspended prison sentences of 10 weeks to run concurrently, suspended for 12 months. He was also ordered to pay costs of £200 and a victim surcharge of £80. 

HSE Myth Busters:

Buses cannot stop at certain bus stops because of health and safety

Issue

A bus company claimed their bus could not stop at certain stops along a diversion route because of health and safety issues.

Panel opinion

This is a clear case of health and safety being used as an excuse when the reasoning has absolutely nothing to do with health and safety.  The bus company recognised this and will encourage their staff to give proper explanations in future, not just the catch-all ‘health and safety’.

TV Company cites health and safety as reason for different camera angles

Issue

A TV company responded to viewer complaints regarding camera angles during broadcast of football match, citing ‘health and safety on the gantry’.

Panel opinion

Our enquiries have discovered that the upper gantry normally used for television cameras was found to be unsafe to use during preparations for the broadcast. Alternative positions were investigated and the cameras were moved to a lower gantry. Whilst the coverage of the game was not of the quality that viewers would normally expect, it was appropriate to use safety as the reason. The good news is that the safety issues are being rectified so future coverage will not be affected, and full marks to the TV crew in the meantime for finding an alternative place to site the camera even if it was not of normal quality.

Hugo Boss fined £1.2m for health and safety breaches

Hugo Boss has been fined £1.2m after a four-year-old boy died at one its shops.

Austen Healey was killed by an 18-stone (114kg) changing room mirror, which fell on him at the Hugo Boss outlet in Bicester Village in 2013.  He was rushed to the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, where he underwent an emergency operation to relieve pressure on his brain but died four days later in hospital after his life-support machine was switched off.

Hugo Boss admitted to health and safety breaches at a hearing at Banbury Magistrates’ Court on 2 June for failing to secure mirror.  The defending QC entered a guilty plea for the company to offences under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

However the prosecuting team on behalf of Cherwell District Council, told the court that the label should be sentenced at the crown court because the maximum fine at magistrates’ court was only £20,000.  “Plainly this a very serious matter relating to a child aged four-and-a-half who on June 4 2013 was struck on the head by a seven feet tall, 18 stone free standing three-way mirror,” he added.

“It wasn’t fixed to the wall despite its own requirements. We say, bearing in mind that the injuries the child sustained resulted in his death that this is a case that should be dealt with in the crown court.”

An inquest concluded the mirror should have been fixed to a wall, while coroner Darren Salter described the incident as “an accident waiting to happen”.  In sentencing the company, Oxford Crown Court Judge Peter Ross said Hugo Boss had a “corporate responsibility”, and he wanted to ensure the issue went to the “very top of the company”.

Source: SHP 04/09/2015

HSE Prosecutions:

Construction company fined for gas safety failings

A company that constructs extensions to houses has been fined after incorrectly working on gas flue, potentially putting lives at risk as harmful could have seeped back into the house.

Southwark Crown Court heard how, between June 2013 and June 2014, Wedgewood Design and Build Limited of London, was building an extension across the full width of a house at a property at Greenside Road, West London. The extension work required the gas flue to be repositioned. This involved extending an existing gas flue which was boxed into a void, meaning there was no way of examining the flue. Also, an incorrect type of pipe was used for the flue.

Wedgewood Design and Build Limited, of Ballards Lane, London was fined a total of £9,000, and ordered to pay £7,500 in costs after pleading guilty to an offence under Regulation 8 (3) of the Gas Safety(Installation and Use) Regulations 1998.

HSE Myth Busters:

Golf club won’t put Committee meeting minutes onto notice board

Issue

A golf club has stopped putting Committee meeting minutes onto a notice board for health and safety reasons.

Panel opinion

There are no conceivable health and safety reasons for not displaying documents such as minutes of a meeting onto a notice board.  It is totally mystifying that someone should suggest this.

Non-travellers banned from platform at railway station

Issue

Only travellers are allowed on to the platform at a railway station, preventing non-travellers from seeing off family and friends.

 

Panel opinion

A few station operators have phased out the use of discretionary platform-only tickets for commercial and operational reasons. These reasons include ticket barriers and the need to combat fare dodgers in some locations. Most railway stations do still accommodate non-travellers on their platforms to meet and greet loved ones but some may take the reasonable step of suspending this at really busy times if platforms are crowded. In this latter situation it may be that “health and safety” is used as shorthand to explain the reason but this is not a valid excuse at non peak times.

 

 

 

 

It’s official - why women live longer than men…

 

 

 

HSE Prosecutions: 

Recycling firm sentenced over safety failing after death of man

A waste recycling firm has been sentenced after admitting safety failings related to a worker being killed at its premises in Batley.

Bradford Crown Court heard that on 17 August 2012, Simon Brook, an employee of Gwynn Davies-McTiffin Ltd was found lying seriously injured at the bottom of a horizontal baling machine.

His legs had been partially severed inside the machine and had to be amputated by a doctor at the scene. The 50-year-old father of six died two days later.

The court heard though there were no witnesses to the incident, it seems likely the deceased was fatally injured when he fell into the baling machine’s hopper while clearing a blockage. A steel pole was found in the chamber, suggesting that Mr Brook had been using the pole to clear a blockage at the time of the accident.

The HSE served a Prohibition Notice on the company on the day of the incident prohibiting use of the baler involved due to the guarding deficiencies allowing access to dangerous parts. An Improvement Notice was also served requiring the company to provide systems of work for all foreseeable interventions on the baler.

HSE told the court that failings at the company’s premises in Batley were systemic. Health and safety management systems fell far short of what was required with management failing to ensure that long standing actions from risk assessments were implemented or that safe working practices for clearing blockages were put in place.

The court heard that blockages occurred every shift at the plant, with employees describing various unsafe methods of clearing blockages in the hopper of the baler. These included standing on the top platform, leaning over the side and prodding the blockage with a stick, climbing over the side of the machine and standing on the conveyor belt at the top of the hopper or jumping on the cardboard blockage within the hopper.

Gwynn Davies-McTiffin Ltd of Ings Mill, Bradford Rd, Batley, West Yorkshire was fined £80,000 with costs of £40,000 after pleading guilty to breaching Section 2 (1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

Food manufacturing company and director sentenced

A multi million pound turnover food manufacturer and one of its directors have been fined after a worker was crushed by a forklift truck at its Warwickshire factory.

Leamington Crown Court heard that agency worker Jamie Barsby was lucky to be alive after the incident at The Sandwich Factory Holdings Ltd on the Carlyon Road Industrial Estate in Atherstone on 29 July 2012.

He was thrown from the forks of a forklift truck and crushed between the forklift and the back of an articulated lorry as he was being lifted into the back of the lorry to reorganise pallets of sandwiches. The 26-year-old, from Atherstone, broke a number of vertebrae, fractured his pelvis and suffered blood blisters all over his body.

The Judge found that director Paul Nicholson had failed to ensure safety management systems were in place at the factory. The court heard that had such systems been in place, the unsafe practice would not have occurred.

The Sandwich Factory Holdings Ltd, of Helsinki Road, Sutton Fields Industrial Estate, Kingston upon Hull, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. It was fined a total of £60,000 and ordered to pay costs of £57,790.

Director Paul Nicholson, aged 55, of Balnain, Drumndrochit, Inverness, pleaded guilty to two breaches of Section 37(1) of the same Act. He was given a conditional discharge and ordered to pay costs of £50,513. 

Transport company in court over driver’s death

A Norfolk-based road transport company has been sentenced for safety failings after a driver suffered life-changing injuries and later died following an incident in Broxbourne, Herts. 

Keith Brookes, 61 (he was 59 at the time of the accident),from Milton Keynes, fell from a unsecured ladder during an operation to unload items from a lorry at the Hertfordshire Golf and Country Club on White Stubbs Lane on 23 November 2012. 

 

The incident was investigated by the HSE, which prosecuted Mr Brookes’ employer, David Watson Transport Ltd, after finding the company had failed to properly safeguard workers from falls. 

David Watson Transport Ltd of Mundford Road, Weeting, Norfolk, was fined a total of £150,000 and ordered to pay costs of £88,030.69 after being found guilty to three counts of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.