Welcome to HSE prosecutions in brief. An overview of this weeks prosecutions by the HSE.
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Kent factory fined after worker suffers severe head injuries
A cardboard box manufacturer in Kent has been fined after an incident in which a delivery driver suffered severe head injuries after a fall.
The HSE brought a prosecution against W.E. Roberts (Corrugated) Ltd which is based at Thames Works, Grove Road, Northfleet, in Kent.
On the 27 August 2009 , the worker was delivering flat-packed cardboard boxes to an address in Eastbourne. He was trying to pull a pallet of cardboard boxes across his trailer from the driver’s side to the curb side. The pallet strapping snapped and the worker fell nearly three metres backwards and 1.5m down onto the pavement.
As a result he suffered severe head injuries, which have had life-changing effects and have meant he is still not able to return to work.
At Dartford Magistrates’ Court, on the 28th September 2011,W.E. Roberts (Corrugated) Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay costs of £12,190.
Read full story here.
Demolition firm fined for Maesteg site asbestos failings
A demolition contractor has been fined after exposing workers to potentially deadly asbestos fibres at the former Revlon factory in Maesteg.
An investigation by the HSE found Walsh Plant Hire and Demolition Contractors Ltd of Pontypridd ignored repeated warnings to manage the safe removal of asbestos during work on the demolition of the site.
Bridgend Magistrates Court heard the company was first served with a Prohibition Notice ceasing activity at the site in February 2010, because work to remove asbestos cement sheeting debris was likely to generate asbestos dust which could have posed a health risk to those working at the site.
Before resuming work, the company was required to produce a plan for the safe removal of the materials to make sure it was properly managed.
A management plan was developed to keep the asbestos cement in a safe condition by damping down the waste until it was removed from the site. However, a further visit by the HSE on 27 May 2010 found the company had ignored the guidelines in its own plan, as the site was dry, and no damping down had been undertaken for a week.
Excavators were also found to be moving rubble contaminated with asbestos-containing debris, and tracking over asbestos cement fragments, potentially contaminating workers with asbestos dust.
Walsh Plant Hire and Demolition Contractors Ltd, of Unit 6, Old Parish Road, Ynysybwl, Pontypridd, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 7(5) of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006. On the 26th September 2011, the company was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay full costs of £6,828.
Read full story here.
Worker’s fingers severed by wood cutting machine
- The thumb and fingers on a worker’s right hand were cut off while he was using a firewood processing machine at a Shropshire farm, a court heard.
The HSE prosecuted farmer Richard Griffiths, of Town Cottage Farm, Hughley, after the 16 December 2010 incident that left 26-year-old agency worker Stuart Tomlins with life-changing injuries.
Shrewsbury Magistrates’ Court heard that Mr Tomlins, from Craven Arms, was trying to straighten a log that had become twisted in the machine’s splitting chute.
As he put his right hand inside the chute, the hydraulic splitting ram, which pushes logs onto a blade activated, pushing his hand through the blade along with the log, severing his thumb and all four fingers.
He was airlifted to hospital, where surgeons reattached his thumb but could not reattach his fingers. The court heard he is still undergoing medical treatment and it is not known what use he will have of his injured hand.
HSE’s investigation into the incident found that the splitting control lever on the machine had previously been forced, enabling the machine to run with the splitting chute guard open. This meant that the operator could reach the machine’s dangerous moving parts.
Mr Tomlins, who had no previous experience of working on firewood processing machines, was not properly trained or supervised. He had only been working at the farm for a couple of weeks before the incident and had been instructed to use the machine with the guard in the open position.
Mr Griffiths pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and Regulation 5 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. He was fined £14,000 in total and ordered to pay £8,500 costs.
Read full story here.
County Durham firm fined after worker crushed to death
A County Durham engineering firm has been fined £100,000 after a worker was crushed to death while clearing a jam on a production line.
Father-of-two Paul Clark, 52, of Newton Aycliffe, was a multi-skilled fitter at Tallent Automotive Ltd-Gestamp Automocion, where he died on 8 July 2009 after becoming trapped between a moving carriage and its tracks.
Durham Crown Court heard that Mr Clark had been working in the press shop of the company’s Newton Aycliffe plant, which manufactures components for the car industry.
An investigation by the HSE found that a pneumatically-powered carriage, part of a large press which produced chassis components, had jammed. The carriage, known as a destacker, was used to remove empty magazines which had previously contained metal blanks, away from the press.
Mr Clark was attempting to clear the jam after the carriage had stopped halfway along its tracks. He had opened the interlocked safety gates to gain access within the fenced enclosure of the machine. This isolated the equipment from the electricity supply, but did not isolate and make safe the pneumatic power element of the machine. The equipment for controlling movement of the carriage was located within the tracks the carriage ran on, which meant he had to work in a dangerous area in order to try and establish the cause of the jam.
While working on the equipment between the tracks, the carriage moved suddenly and trapped Mr Clark between the carriage and the support structure at the end of the tracks. He died as a result of traumatic asphyxia due to crush injuries.
The HSE investigation found that there was no safe system for carrying out work within the destacker area, as the pneumatic power for the machinery was not isolated before entering the interlocked enclosure. Although the electrical hazards were recognised by the company, the risks from the pneumatically operated equipment were not.
It was also found that the controls for adjusting the destacker carriage were located in a position of danger. There was also insufficient information available to Mr Clark to show how the pneumatic supply worked and how he could safely make the necessary adjustments.
Tallent Automotive Limited-Gestamp Automocion, of Aycliffe Industrial Estate, Newton Aycliffe, pleaded guilty of breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was fined £100,000. The company was also ordered to pay £44,000 costs.
Read full story here.
