Health & Safety in the news this week: 

Poppies removed from station amid health and safety fears

Poppies have been taken down at a busy railway station for health and safety reasons amid fears train drivers could mistake them for red signals.

Workmen were spotted by commuters removing the plastic memorial flowers from pillars running the length of the platform at Surbiton station in Surrey only days after they were put up.

The poppies were paid for by South West Trains and installed at the station ahead of next month's Remembrance Day commemorations.

But it was later decided they fell foul of health and safety rules so were moved to other parts of the station - including the booking hall and ticket offices, well out of sight of train drivers.

Sian Freestone-Walker, of South West Trains, said: "To be clear they have only been moved to a different location within the station."

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

 HSE Prosecutions round-up: 

Construction firm sentenced after dumper truck topple

A construction firm has been sentenced after a worker was injured when a 10 tonne dumper truck he was driving over-turned and landed in an open excavation.

Peterborough Magistrates’ Court heard Turner Construction (Midlands) Ltd failed to put in place measures such as stop blocks to prevent vehicles from falling into the excavation, failed to plan and implement a safe system of work, and inadequately trained the dumper truck driver.

The HSE prosecuting said the incident could have easily been avoided by putting simple safety measures in place.

Turner Construction (Midlands) Ltd of Commerce Drive, Penkridge, Stafford admitted a breach of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007, Regulation 13(2) and Regulation 9 (1) of Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and was fined £7,000 for each charge (£14,000 total) and ordered to pay full prosecution costs of £1607.

The driver of the truck sustained crush injuries to his wrist.

Construction client sentenced over multiple safety failings

A care provider engaged in construction works has been fined after it admitted unsafe working practices, including failure to remove asbestos materials from the old buildings before demolition work. 

The HSE received a complaint in March 2014 from a member of the public living close to the former hospital site on Hospital Hill, Chesham, Buckinghamshire concerning activities going on at the premises. 

Upon attending, HSE inspectors noted the former Chesham Community Hospital buildings had been partially demolished by a contractor. However, on enquiring with the client, Chesham Care Ltd, it was discovered that removal of asbestos containing materials (ACM’s) had not taken place prior to demolition. 

High Wycombe Magistrates’ Court, heard Chesham Care Ltd, a provider of nursing and rehabilitation services, was acting as the ‘client’ for the project, but as it had failed to appoint a principal contractor/construction design and management (CDM) co-ordinator in writing, by law it had assumed the associated legal duties and roles. 

When HSE inspectors arrived, among the catalogue of failings, they found the works had been going on for around 2-3 months and observed asbestos containing materials among demolished building debris, demolition arrangements not recorded in writing, the site not securely locked or with relevant warning signs and no welfare facilities present on site. 

In HSE’s opinion there was also a serious risk of injury from collapse of partially demolished buildings. 

Chesham Care Limited’s registered business address is St Catherine’s Road, Broxbourne, Hertfordshire. The firm admitted multiple failures of the Construction (Design & Management) Regulations 2007 and was fined a total of £35,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1321.60.

Family exposed to dangerous asbestos

Tenants of a house in Lincolnshire were exposed to dangerous levels of deadly asbestos dust, a court was told.

A judge at Lincoln Crown Court fined Blankney Estates Ltd, the company which rented the property in Scopwick, after it pleaded guilty to health and safety offences. The court heard it did not adequately manage what were clearly deteriorating asbestos materials, and did not ensure that work within the property to remove an asbestos-lagged tank was properly planned and carried out safely by competent contractors.

The same court also fined plumbing company Michael Grace Ltd and Adam and John Thurlby, who were directors of a family-owned demolition company ART Dismantling Co Ltd. These defendants were prosecuted by HSE for breaching the Control of Asbestos Regulations (CAR) 2006 when they worked on removing the tank from the house.

Blankney Estates Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. They were fined £50,000 and ordered to pay £20,000 in costs.

Adam and John Thurlby also pleaded guilty and were each fined £12,500 and ordered to pay £7,500 costs for contravening five CAR Regulations while acting as directors of ART Dismantling.

Michael Grace Ltd, registered address of St John Street, London, but trading locally in Lincolnshire, pleaded guilty to three CAR offences and was fined £10,000 plus £5,000 in costs.

Engineering and facilities firms sentenced

Two companies have been sentenced for safety failings after a worker was electrocuted during work on a data centre in Middlesex.

Balfour Beatty Engineering Services Ltd (BBES) was contracted to carry out multi-million pound infrastructure upgrade works at the data centre in Hounslow, while Norland Managed Services Ltd (NMS) were already contracted to provide mechanical and electrical maintenance and had effective control of the site.

Ipswich Crown Court heard Martin Walton, 27, from Blackhall Colliery, Cleveland was killed on 16 October 2010 at Morgan Stanley’s Heathrow Data Centre.

The court heard the function of some new power distribution units being installed was to provide two potential power supply sources to the centre’s data storage equipment. One source was an existing substation on the site and the other was a new substation installed as part of the works.

The existing power supply was under the control of Norland Managed Services Ltd while the new supply was under the control of Balfour Beatty Engineering Services Ltd.

Connection of the first three of these units to the existing data centre infrastructure was scheduled to take place over the weekend of 16th to 18th October 2010. Last minute modifications to the units required them to be tested with two live supplies to ensure they functioned correctly before being connected to the data centre’s existing infrastructure. The first unit was successfully modified, tested and connected to the existing infrastructure. However, Martin Walton, a cable jointer employed by subcontracted company, Integrated Cable Services Ltd, was electrocuted when his forehead made contact with the 415V live terminals of the second unit.

During the sentencing hearing and the earlier trial, HSE told the court the underlying cause of the incident was a succession of failures indicative of the complete breakdown of BBES’s management of health and safety in relation to this project, particularly the breakdown of communication.

While NMS had no role in the construction project, the relevant aspect of their undertaking was the management of the impact of the construction project on the existing operational infrastructure under their control.

NMS issued a permit-to-work to Martin Walton allowing him to reroute the existing site power supply through the new distribution unit, in the knowledge it had the potential to receive a supply from a source not under their control and without confirming that the other supply was isolated.

Mechanical and electrical installation contractor, Balfour Beatty Engineering Services Ltd of Lumina Building, Ainslie Road, Hillington Park, Glasgow, admitted breaches of Section 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety Work etc. Act 1974 and was fined £280,000 in total (£140,000 for each breach) with £42,240 costs.

Facilities management company, Norland Managed Services Ltd, of City Bridge House, Southwark Street, London was found guilty after an earlier trial of breaching 3(1) of the Health and Safety Work etc. Act 1974 and was fined £100,000 with £106,670 costs.

Firm fined over safety breach

A woodworking firm was fined for safety breaches after stacks of boards fell onto two employees and injured both of them.

Leeds Magistrates’ Court heard that in August 2012, a fork-lift truck was working closely with two pedestrians during a lifting operation. It hit a stack of boards which knocked into one worker, who then fell onto a second stack, which fell on a second worker. One employee broke both his legs.

The HSE investigated and prosecuted Spa Laminates Limited, of Pepper Road, Leeds. It pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. It was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay £7,438 costs.

 

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.

 

HSE Prosecutions round-up: 

Company fined after worker injured in fall from roof

A maintenance company has been fined for safety failings after an employee was injured when he fell from a roof.

Southwark Crown Court heard how in February 2014, an employee of Aspect Maintenance Services Limited of London was working as a roofing engineer on a domestic house in Tooting. He was repairing the roof when he slipped and fell landing on a table on the patio area below. There was no edge protection on the roof at the time of the accident.

He suffered a shattered elbow, a broken jaw, tissue damage to his knee and facial injury.

Aspect Maintenance Services Limited, of Rufus Business Centre, Ravensbury Terrace, London, was fined a total of £20,000, and ordered to pay £4,735 in costs after pleading guilty to an offence under Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. The company had failed to ensure that the roof work that Mr Jones was carrying out was properly planned, appropriately supervised and carried out in a manner which is, so far as is reasonably practicable, safe.

Restaurant owner fined over employer liability insurance

A restaurant owner has been fined for failing to provide Employers’ Liability Compulsory Insurance (ELCI). 

Hasret Sasmaz, trading as Starburger of Frances Street, Woolwich, was fined a total of £1500 (£500 for each offence) and ordered to pay full costs of £1779 at Maidstone Magistrates’ Court after pleading guilty to three offences under Section 1 of the Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969.

Firms sentenced after worker killed

Two global companies have been sentenced after a worker was killed and another seriously injured during construction of an offshore wind farm. 

The incident happened when a team of engineers were loading wind turbine blades onto a sea barge for delivery to Greater Gabbard, off the Suffolk coast, on 21 May 2010. 

During the loading of wind turbine components at Pakeston Quay, Harwich, a 2.11 tonne part of the blade transport arrangement fell off, crushing and fatally injuring one worker and seriously injuring another.  

Chelmsford Crown Court heard both workers were employed by Siemens Windpower A/S (SWP) but were working for Fluor Ltd, the principal contractor. 

The injured man, Frank Kroeger, was airlifted to Addenbrookes hospital in Cambridge where he was resuscitated twice. He suffered a ruptured spleen, lacerations to his liver, a collapsed lung, multiple rib fractures on his left side, and significant crush injuries to his right arm and hand, with nerve damage to his thumb and fingers.  

His injuries were life-changing and required almost three weeks in hospital in the UK, followed by a long period of rehabilitation and treatment near his home in Germany. 

The family of the fatally-injured man have asked that his name not be released. 

The investigation carried out by HSE found serious safety failings in the two firms’ management systems for the loading operation, which allowed vital parts of equipment to go unchecked before being lifted.  

Following a four-week trial in July, prosecuted by the HSE, Fluor Ltd was found guilty of breaching Section 3 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and was ordered to pay £275,000 in fines and £271,048 costs. 

Siemens Windpower A/S (SWP) were charged with the same offence and also a Section 2 (1) breach of the same act, but pleaded guilty at an earlier stage. They were also sentenced and ordered to pay £375,000 in fines with costs of £105,355.