Welcome to HSE prosecutions in brief. An overview of this weeks prosecutions by the HSE.
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Parcel firm fined £150,000 after lorry reverses into worker’s head
Tufnells Parcels Express Ltd has been fined £150,000 and ordered to pay £19,000 in court costs after an employee was seriously injured when his skull was crushed by a reversing lorry at the company’s depot in West Horndon nr Brentwood, Essex.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), prosecuting, told Chelmsford Crown Court that in the early hours of 23 March 2010, Simon Mason, 22, from Romford, Essex was working the nightshift as a warehouse porter. An articulated 45ft HGV trailer was being reversed into an open loading bay while Mr Mason waited to unload it.
Mr Mason noticed the trailer was not positioned straight in the bay, so thinking it had stopped moving, he put his head around the back of the trailer to shout instructions to the driver. Just as he did so, the trailer came back further, crushing his head against the brick bay wall.
Tufnells Parcels Express Ltd, whose Head Office is in Shepcote House, Shepcote Lane, Sheffield, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was fined £150,000 with costs of £19,000.
Read full story here.
Dad-to-be’s death exposes safety flaws
A Sheffield crane driver died from massive crush injuries just weeks before he was due to become a father, a court was told today.
Alan Winters, 28, was killed when he and colleagues attempted to unload a four-ton crate from a shipping container at the DavyMarkham Ltd factory in Darnall, Sheffield, on 15 July 2008.
Mr Winters was one of a group of workers who had already tried several ways to move the crate from the container. In a final attempt, Mr Winters climbed on the back of a forklift truck to unhook a chain from a corner of the container but the forklift reversed too far and tilted up over the lip of the container, trapping him against the roof.
DavyMarkham Ltd of Prince of Wales Road, Sheffield, had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to an offence under the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974. They were fined a total of £33,333 with £49,247 in costs.
Read full story here.
Ipswich printer fined after worker injures hand
The hand of an employee at an Ipswich printing firm was mutilated by an unguarded machine, a court has heard.
Print Manager John Stagg, 40, was working the night shift at Ancient House Press on the Hadleigh Road Industrial Estate, when the incident happened on 10 September 2010.
Ipswich Magistrates’ Court today heard Mr Stagg, who had worked at Ancient House for more than 20 years, was attempting to clear a blockage from underneath a conveyor belt on a stacking machine when his right hand got caught in its toothed cogs.
Ancient House Press plc of 8 Whittle Road, Hadleigh Road Industrial Estate, Ipswich, admitted breaching regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations. The company was fined £7,500 with £8,272 costs.
Read full story here.
County Durham firm fined after worker’s fingers severed
A County Durham firm has been fined £10,500 after a worker had three fingers severed while using a bandsaw.
John Houston, 39, from Ferryhill, was working as a contractor for Derek Parnaby Cyclones International Ltd, which manufactures and installs mineral processing and effluent treatment systems and equipment.
Mr Houston was working at the company’s head office in Chilton where he was using a horizontal metal cutting bandsaw to cut down pieces of steel to make a frame. There was no safety guard in place and his left hand came into contact with the moving blade, severing three of his fingers.
Derek Parnaby Cyclones International Ltd, of Avenue 1, Chilton Industrial Estate, Chilton was fined a total of £10,500 and ordered to pay £3,266.60 in costs after it pleaded guilty to one breach of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and one breach of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.
Read full story here.
Roof fall leads to fine for Nottinghamshire firm
A mechanical engineering company has been fined after a subcontractor suffered serious back injuries falling through a roof.
Self-employed roofer Michael Hawkins, 23, of Rotherham, fell approximately six metres through a fragile roof at a large industrial building at Cotes Park Lane, Somercotes, Derbyshire. He underwent six operations in just six months including a large skin graft to his back and has been unable to return to work since the 16 June 2009 incident.
Mechanical Solutions Ltd, of Acorn Business Park, Commercial Gate, Mansfield, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. The company was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay full costs of £5,366.
Read full story here.
Burton brewery fined after man hit by forklift truck
A Burton-on-Trent brewery has been sentenced after a delivery driver was hit by a forklift truck while on site.
Peter Jackson, 64, was at Molson Coors Brewing Company (UK) Ltd’s site at Station Street to unload a trailer of empty cans on 20 May 2008.
As he walked along the lines in the canning hall to find a space to deliver his load, he was struck by a forklift truck, which trapped his left leg beneath the forks. His foot and left wrist were both fractured and he has not been able to return to work since the incident.
Molson Coors, based at High Street, Burton-on-Trent, pleaded guilty to breaching Sections 2 and 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and was fined £31,000 and ordered to pay £33,042 costs by Cannock Magistrates’ Court.
Read full story here.
Burton brewery fined after three men burned by caustic soda
A Burton-on-Trent brewery has been fined after three men suffered serious chemical burns when 6,000 litres of caustic soda erupted from a faulty valve.
The three sub-contractors from a specialist engineering company were undertaking maintenance work at Molson Coors Brewing Company (UK) Ltd’s Station Street site.
They were drenched in a liquid jet of caustic soda when repairing a valve on a line running from a detergent tank on 30 June 2008. Up to 6,000 litres of the chemical spilled out from the container.
Martin Soanes, 53, was temporarily blinded and one of his colleagues, who has asked not to be identified, suffered 25 per cent burns, which have left him with scars and continuing sensitivity, making it difficult for him to tolerate heat. The third man suffered minor skin burns and irritation to his eyes.
Molson Coors, of High Street, Burton-on-Trent, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was fined £14,000 and ordered to pay £43,674 costs.
Read full story here.
Cardiff roof company fined after worker’s crush injury
A metal roofing company has been prosecuted for safety failings after a Cardiff worker suffered a serious wrist injury while operating production line machinery.
The Worker was operating a machine that positions wooden blocks beneath packs of roof panels on the production line when some of the blocks became jammed in the machinery. Walking into the enclosure with the machine still in ‘automatic’ mode, he reached under the machine to reach the jammed bearers and free them.
However, once the blockage was removed, the machinery started up again and crushed his wrist between the bearer and the base frame.
HSE prosecuted Euro Clad Ltd, of Wentloog Corporate Park, Wentloog, for failing to take effective measures to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery, and for not checking the guards or interlocks were in place at the time.
The company had previously pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11(3) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment. Today at Cardiff Crown Court, it was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay costs of £6,000.
Read full story here.
