Risk, Health and Safety Information

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.