HSE prosecution round up:
HSE prosecution announcement
The Health and Safety Executive
(HSE) has informed BAM Nuttall Limited, Ferrovial Agroman (UK) Ltd, and Keir
Infrastructure and Overseas Ltd that they will be prosecuted in relation to
three incidents that took place during the construction of the new Crossrail
railway tunnel construction, which runs east to west across London.
All three companies will appear
at Westminster Magistrates Court in January 2017 to face four charges each: two
relating to the death of Rene Tka’cik on the 7 March 2014 and one each relating
to injuries to Terrence Hughes on the 16 January and Alex Vizitiu on 22 January
2015.
Rene Tka’cik died after he was
crushed by falling concrete on the 7 March 2014 while working on the Fisher Street
cross-over tunnel.
Terrance ‘Ian’ Hughes was
working between the Bond Street and Paddington section of the tunnel on the 16
January 2015 when he was crushed by a tipper truck. He suffered severe leg
injuries.
Alex Vizitiu was working in the
same stretch of the tunnel on 22 January 2015. He suffered head and hip
injuries when he was struck by a high pressure mixture of water and concrete
during a routine operation to clean concrete lines.
HSE’s Head of Operations,
Annette Hall said:
“We have informed the three
contractors that they will each be prosecuted for the death of a worker and
injuries sustained by two others, in three separate incidents on the
construction project. These were all
serious incidents and resulted in the death of one of their workers. We have concluded following thorough
investigations that there is sufficient evidence to prosecute and it is in the
public interest to do so.”
BAM Nuttall Limited of St James
House, Knoll Road, Camberley, Surrey, GU15 3XW, Ferrovial Agroman (UK) Ltd of
10th Floor, BSI Building, 389 Chiswick High Road, London, W4 4AL and
Keir Infrastructure and Overseas Ltd of Tempsford Hall, Sandy, Bedfordshire,
SG19 2BD will each face four charges:
One charge under section 2 of
the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
One charge under section 3 of
the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974
Two charges under Regulation 22
(1)(a) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007
Volvo sentenced for worker fall
The national truck, bus and
plant division of Volvo has been fined £900,000 after one of their workers fell
and suffered head injuries.
Westminster Magistrates’ Court
heard how a worker was servicing a large delivery truck and repairing the
driver’s access rope for the cab when he fell, striking his head and losing
consciousness. He was placed in a medically induced coma for two weeks. He
still suffers from ongoing complications and has been unable to return to work.
An investigation by the Health
and Safety Executive (HSE) found the step ladder that the worker was using was
damaged and its anti-slip feet were worn. It was not Volvo property and had not
been maintained or checked to ensure it was suitable for use. At the time of
the incident, 17 September 2015, Volvo UK had not trained their staff to select, inspect and use access equipment for work at height.
Volvo Group UK Limited,
Wedgnock Lane, Warwick, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health
and Safety at Work Act 1974 and was fined £900,000 and ordered to pay costs of
£5820.28, with a £150 victim surcharge.
HSE inspector Nick Wright said:
“This worker suffered life
changing injuries that could have been prevented by simple health and safety
precautions. For two weeks his family was told to prepare for the worst as he
was placed in an induced coma to help manage the swelling on his brain.
This case is not about banning
ladders, on many occasions they are the right equipment to use when working at
height; it is about companies ensuring they properly maintain their work at
height equipment and train their workers on how to inspect them and select the
correct tools for the job. As this case shows, even a fall from a relatively
small height can have devastating consequences.”
Company and Director fined after Multiple Safety Failings on
Construction Site
A construction company and its
Managing Director have been prosecuted for operating an unsafe construction
site during the conversion of a building in Bollington.
Manchester and Salford
Magistrates’ Court heard how the conditions on the site, where a former pub was
being changed into two houses, were so poor it prompted a member of public to
complain to the local authority.
The Health and Safety Executive
(HSE) inspected the site and had to stop all the work on the building as the
conditions were so dangerous and putting workers lives at immediate risk. In
total HSE inspectors served three prohibition notices and two improvement
notices for safety failings that ranged from work at height issues, missing
floorings with no protection and health failings including the provision of
welfare facilities with running water.
HSE’s inspection also found an
extremely unsafe wall on the property that had not been sufficiently supported
to prevent it from collapsing.
The HSE investigation found
that both the company and its director did not put in place effective health
and safety management at the start of the conversion. They failed to notify HSE
of the project, appoint a competent principal contractor or ensure they had
suitable and sufficient measures to reduce risks to workers and members of the
public.
Bluefig Development Ltd, of
Dale House, 35 Dale Street, Manchester pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3 of
the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and Regulation 22(1)(c) of the
Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007, and was fined £42,900
with £3,781.24 costs.
Company Director Faris Mousa
pleaded guilty to breaching two charges under Section 37 of the Health and
Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was fined £40,000 with £3,658.24 costs.
HSE inspector Deborah Walker
said after the hearing:
“Bluefig Development Ltd and Mr
Faris Mousa completely failed in their duties to protect the workers or members
of the public from harm. This was an extremely dangerous site and it is only
luck that nobody was injured or even killed. Anyone involved in
construction, no matter what size of site or project has to take the health,
safety and welfare of their workers seriously. If the unstable wall had
collapsed we could now be talking about the tragic death of a worker and its
impact on their family rather than how lucky they are no-one was injured.”
Company fined after young worker injured
A waste management company has
been prosecuted after a worker was left with life changing injuries.Chippenham Magistrates Court heard how the 19-year-old worker and his colleagues had cleared a blockage from the waste picking line, when his gloved hand got caught in the conveyor belt. The roller fractured his right hand, dislocated his wrist and radius and he had to spend two weeks in hospital following the incident.
The investigation by the Health
and Safety Executive found that there was no effective guarding around the
conveyor belt to prevent workers hands being caught up in the mechanism.
MJ Church (Plant) Ltd, Star
Farm, Marshfield, Chippenham pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11(1) of
the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and were fined £20,000
and ordered to pay costs of £1,549.53 and a victim surcharge of £170.
HSE Inspector Tania Nickson,
said:
“A young worker’s life was
changed forever because a company failed to ensure there was the correct
guarding in place on a conveyor belt. A year after the incident he still
requires medical treatment and is unlikely to gain full use of his right hand.
All companies that work with dangerous machinery can learn from this case –
straightforward precautions protect workers safety.”
Employee Seriously Injured after Fork Lift Truck Overturns
A construction company has been
fined after a 58 year old worker suffered serious injuries when the fork lift
truck and attached man-riding cage that he was working from overturned and he
fell to the floor.
Worsley Projects Limited
trading as Egan Projects, had been employed by Edmundson Electrical to carry
out refurbishment work on a new unit that they had leased. This included
installing new IT cabling between the new unit and the existing building.
Manchester Magistrates’ Court
heard that on 23 June 2015, the new cabling was being attached to existing
cabling approximately 7 metres above road surface, with plastic cable ties. The
work was nearly complete when the fork lift truck and man-riding cage
overturned in an area where the road was sloped. The employee grabbed the
existing cabling as the overturn occurred but then fell to the floor and
suffered serious injuries to his pelvis, vertebrae and right hand.
The HSE investigation found
Worsley Projects Limited trading as Egan Projects had produced a risk
assessment and method statement and decided that the work be carried out using
a fork lift truck and attached man-riding cage.
The incident could have been
prevented by provision of more suitable equipment to avoid working on the
sloping road surface.
HSE inspector David Norton said
after the hearing:
“Falls from height are still
the most common cause of serious accidents in the workplace in the UK and many
could have been prevented if the correct equipment had been selected and used.
This is the situation in this case a cherry picker type Mobile Elevating
Working Platform (MEWP) could have avoided the sloped road surface where the
incident occurred.’’
Worsley Projects Limited
trading as Egan Projects, of 19 Green Lane, Eccles was found guilty of
breaching Regulation 4(1) of the Working at Height Regulations 2005 and was
fined £10,000 with £1,194.35 costs.
Construction companies fined after failing to carry out basement
excavation work safely
Two London based construction
companies were prosecuted after a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspection
identified serious safety breaches on a double basement construction project.
Westminster Magistrates’ Court
heard that emergency services had been called to a property at Bathurst Mews,
London, where excavation work to form a double basement was being carried
out. They rescued a labourer with a broken arm and reported their
concerns about the dangerous site to the Health and safety Executive (HSE).
The HSE inspection found,
despite the incident, workers were at risk from falling into deep excavations
and there were no propping arrangements to ensure the stability of excavations
or the existing building. The inspector immediately shut down the site. The
investigation by HSE found that an independent consultant had raised the same
concerns a few months previously but the recommendations had been ignored.
The Principal Contractor
Lifehouse (London) Ltd appointed Nu Space Design Ltd as the contractor to carry
out the excavation work and one of its directors as the site manager.
Neither company appointed a competent person to inspect the excavations
to ensure they were safe.
Lifehouse (London) Ltd of 28
Church Road, Stanmore, HA7 4XR pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 13(1) of
the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM) and was fined
£24,000 and ordered to pay £1,141.50 in costs.
Nu Space (Design) Ltd of 39
Wimborne Avenue, Hayes, UB4 0HQ pleaded guilty to breaching CDM Regulation
15(2) and was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay £1,067.10 in costs.
HSE inspector Andrew
Verrall-Withers commented after the hearing:
“Both companies were aware of
the dangers on the site following the warnings in a consultant’s report, but
they failed to act on the recommendations and a worker was injured.
When carrying out any
construction work, whether new build or refurbishments you have to ensure it is
done safely. In this case they should have appointed a competent person to
carry out regular inspections of the excavations to ensure they did not
collapse onto workers or cause the building to become unstable during the
work”.
Prosecution of local roofing specialist company and its
directors over unsafe roof work
On the 17 March 2015, a member
of public witnessed and photographed unsafe work at a construction site and
contacted the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
Manchester Magistrates’ Court
heard that the photograph showed Mr Jake Clarke, one of a pair of directors for
Enviroply Roofing Limited. His fellow director, Mr Aaron Hepworth was also
witnessed walking along the beam to pass something to Mr Clarke, then walking
back again. There was nothing in place to prevent or mitigate a fall from this
beam.
The HSE investigation
discovered that there was a full time scaffolder on site who was employed to
build any scaffolding required by contractors but on this occasion, Enviroply
and its directors had chosen to rush the job in order to submit their invoice
earlier. Mr Clarke and Mr Hepworth put their lives at risk as the fall would
have been one storey and onto timber beams.
All three defendants failed to
take the proper precautions to manage the risk of a significant fall from
height, despite there being adequate provision on site to provide them with
scaffolding and safe working platforms.
Enviroply Roofing Limited of
Unit 20b, Yarrow Business Centre, Yarrow Rd, Chorley, pleaded guilty at
Manchester Magistrates Court to breaching Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height
Regulations 2005 and were fined £13,300 with £1160.50 costs.
Jake Joseph Clarke of Crown
Street, Leyland, Preston pleaded guilty at Manchester Magistrates Court to
breaching Section 37(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was
fined £1100 with £1160.50 costs.
Aaron Paul Hepworth of 1
Appleyard, Prestolee Road, Radcliffe pleaded guilty at Manchester Magistrates
Court to breaching Section 37(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974
and was fined £2100 with £1160.50 costs.
HSE inspector Matt Greenly said
after the case:
“Enviroply Roofing Limited had
a duty to protect any employees, even the directors, from a risk of a fall from
height.
Mr Clarke and Mr Hepworth, in
their position as directors, recognised that their choices on that day placed
themselves at a serious risk of death or life changing injury and admitted as
much for themselves and their Company. They only realised afterwards that
running those risks in order to submit an invoice early was very unnecessary,
considering how serious the consequences could have been.
It is pure luck that no-one was
injured or killed. I would like to thank the people who reported these concerns
to us as they have been instrumental in saving the lives of these men. It is
hoped that other construction workers will see these cases as a warning that
HSE will act robustly to concerns received and perhaps they will take a little
more time to protect themselves on their next site.”
A builder from Surrey has been
prosecuted for the fall of a worker
Redhill Magistrates heard how
the worker fell 3.2 m through an opening in a roof onto a concrete floor. He
survived the fall but was left with broken ribs, swelling to his brain and
nerve damage.
An investigation found that he
was part of the team building an extension to a house. They had been working on
the roof, adjacent to an opening created previously, but as it had begun to
rain they wanted to cover the exposed parts with plastic sheeting and
tarpaulins. The opening, which was approximately 2 metres by 1.5 metres had no
measures to prevent persons falling, or mitigate the consequences of any fall.
The worker stepped backwards into the opening and fell.
Frank Gaskin, a self-employed
builder who trades under the name of FG Blockplan from Coldstream Road,
Caterham, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 6 (3) of the Work at Height
Regulations 2005. He was fined £2,400
and ordered to pay costs of £2,935.42 with a victim surcharge of £120.
Source: www.hse.gov.uk
HSE Health and Safety Myths Buster
Hanging your Christmas Decorations?
A city council has banned its
staff from putting up Christmas decorations on their office walls because it
"breaches health and safety guidelines".
Bosses at Bradford City
Council, in West Yorkshire, have called bah humbug on its employees' festive
cheer and outlawed the sticking, pinning or nailing decorations to council
buildings.
They were also warned any
festive lights would have to be certified 'low energy' or be torn down.
Advice from HSE is:
“There
are no health and safety laws preventing the hanging of Xmas decorations
despite what many festive tabloid writers may otherwise claim.”
Source:
www.hse.gov.uk
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