Welcome to HSE prosecutions in brief. An overview of this weeks prosecutions by the HSE.
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Worker crushed between two skips
An Ayr recycling company was fined £80,000 after a worker was severely injured when he was crushed between two skips.
On 26 August 2009, Steven Graham was standing in between two skips at a recycling centre run by Lowmac Alloys Ltd when a shovel loader weighing more than 18 tonnes hit one of the skips, pushing it towards the other and crushing Mr Graham between them.
At Ayr Sheriff Court today (15 August 2011) Lowmac Alloys Ltd, of Green Street Lane, Ayr, plead guilty to breaching Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Etc Act 1974. They were fined £80,000.
Read full story here.
Lives risked on slippery roof in Wirral
A roofing firm has been prosecuted after it allowed two of its employees to work on a slippery roof in Wirral without anything in place to stop them falling.
The two workers from Rainsafe Protect Ltd were spotted pressure washing the sloping house roof on Spital Road in Bebington during a routine visit by an inspector from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) on 26 March 2010.
Rainsafe Protect Ltd pleaded guilty to a breach of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 after it failed to make sure the work was planned and carried out safely at the house in Bebington. The company, of Stanley Street in Liverpool, was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £2,069 in prosecution costs on 16 August 2011.
Read full story here.
Timber firm fined after worker injured
A Lincolnshire timber company has been fined after a worker suffered a severe and permanent hand injury while using a circular saw.
A 20-year-old production operative had part of his left thumb severed at Kestrel Timber Frame Ltd, Northfield Road, Market Deeping while cutting insulation foam.
Kestrel Timber Frame Ltd, of Bourne, Lincolnshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Section (2)1 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The company was fined £6,700 and ordered to pay full costs of £4,117.
Read full story here.
Meat plant worker killed by forklift
A Livingston firm has been fined £100,000 after a worker was killed when he was hit by a forklift truck so badly loaded its driver could not see him.
George Hardie, 60, from Livingston, was walking across the yard at Vion Food Scotland Ltd in Broxburn, West Lothian, on 2 June 2009 to drop paperwork off at another part of the site.
As he was walking, a colleague was driving a forklift carrying two large empty containers across the yard to be washed.
The containers were stacked on top of each other on the front of the forklift, and the top of the load was approximately 160cm from the ground, making it hard for the driver to see over them.
As the driver approached the container wash, he felt his truck go over something, stopped, climbed out and saw Mr Hardie lying on his back, with the lower half of his body trapped underneath the forklift.
Colleagues attempted to help Mr Hardie before the emergency services arrived. Fire crews freed Mr Hardie, but when paramedics treated him they found he was not breathing and there were no signs of life. He was taken to the New Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, but was found to be dead on arrival.
At Livingston Sheriff Court today (18 August 2011) Vion Food Scotland Limited of Kirkton Campus, Livingston, pleaded guilty to breaking Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and were fined £100,000.
Read full story here.
Norfolk firm prosecuted over burns to apprentice
An engineering company in Great Yarmouth has been fined after an incident in which a teenage welder suffered burns to his face and one of his eyes.
Jack Amey, from Caister-on-Sea, was just 17 at the time of the incident at Moughton Engineering’s factory on the Gapton Hall industrial estate in Great Yarmouth in October 2010.
He was instructed by another welder to use a toxic cleaning substance called pickling paste to remove burn marks inside a number of small stainless steel tanks but left without supervision. The paste contains acids that can cause severe burns if it comes into contact with skin.
Moughton Engineering, of Faraday Road, Great Yarmouth, pleaded guilty to breaching section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and were fined £6,000 and ordered to pay costs of £4,846.80.
Read full story here.
