Risk, Health and Safety Information

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.