Welcome to HSE prosecutions in brief. An overview of this weeks prosecutions by the HSE.

Disregarded safety warnings cost Bolton firm

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The owners of a Bolton packaging manufacturer have been sentenced for deliberately ignoring formal safety warnings for more than three years.

Company directors Anthony Smith and Yvonne Barrett were prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for failing to install guards on machines used to produce packaging for fast food outlets.

the machines removed paper from the ends of giant rolls used by the newspaper industry. But no guards were provided to prevent workers’ hands being pulled in by the rotating machinery.

HSE issued First Packaging Ltd with an Improvement Notice on 14 January 2008 ordering guards to be installed on the machines at its factory at Wadsworth Industrial Estate in Bolton.

The company was given a six month extension on the deadline to comply with the notice but when the site was revisited in August 2008, the guards had still not been installed. HSE inspectors were told the factory would be closing, so no further action was taken.

In early 2010, HSE discovered that, instead of closing, First Packaging had actually moved to new premises on the West Industrial Estate in Westhoughton and was still using the same unguarded machines. It issued two Prohibition Notices stopping work immediately and another four Improvement Notices.

Later that year, First Packaging Ltd stopped trading and Anthony Smith set up a new company called First Packaging North West Ltd at Pilot Works in Bolton. Again, HSE found Mr Smith had still not had guards fitted to the machines and issued another five Improvement Notices in February 2011.

Anthony Smith and Yvonne Barrett both pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 by not preventing workers being put at risk at the Westhoughton site, and failing to comply with the Improvement Notice issued at the Wadsworth site.

Mr Smith, of Rayden Crescent, Daisy Hill, Westhoughton, also admitted failing to ensure the safety of workers at the Pilot Works site. He was fined £705 and ordered to pay £2,500 in prosecution costs on 9 September 2011. Mrs Barrett, of the same address, was fined £360 with costs of £1,500.

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 Worker exposed to dangerously high levels of asbestos

A company in Bath has been fined after a builder was exposed to high levels of a type of asbestos linked to malignant and incurable cancer.

Jonathan Arnold, 49, of Castle Cary was fitting pipework for a new central heating system at Oxford House, in Combe Down, Bath when he was exposed to high levels of blue asbestos (crocidolite).

For a five-hour period on 4 August, Mr Arnold was estimated to have been exposed to a high concentration of airborne asbestos fibres many times over the control limit.

HSE investigated the incident and found Formac Electronics Ltd had failed to carry out a refurbishment and demolition survey, to establish the presence and condition of asbestos in the building.

Formac Electronics Ltd, of Oxford House, Combe Down, Bath, admitted breaching Regulation 10 of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 and was fined £600 with £6,013.45 in costs.

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Kent tree surgeon fined over worker’s injuries

A Kent-based tree surgeon has been fined after an employee suffered severe injuries when his trouser leg was caught in a tree stump grinder.

Davyd Dyer, 30, suffered terrible injuries to his right leg when his employer, Richard Curteis, left the machine running without being at the controls. Mr Curteis, trading as Aspen Tree Services, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) over the incident on 29 September 2010.

Maidstone Magistrates Court heard the men were at an address in Bearsted, Maidstone, removing around six tree stumps of old conifers using a stump grinder.

Mr Dyer, from Gravesend, walked in front of the unmanned stump grinder carrying a sheet of corrugated metal. His trousers got caught on the rotating cutting head of the stump grinder and pulled his leg into the moving parts of the machine.

He suffered a broken leg, severe muscle injuries and was hospitalised for several weeks, needing a number of operations to reconstruct his leg. His injuries mean it is uncertain whether he will be able to continue working as a tree surgeon.

Richard Curteis of Wierton Hall Farm, East Hall Mill, Broughton Monchelsea in Maidstone, Kent, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(2) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. He was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay full costs of £3,679.

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Safety breach led to teenager’s fairground trauma

A fairground attendant has been in court after a teenage girl plunged head-first onto concrete when a restraint bar opened on the ride she was on at a York carnival.

The 13-year-old girl escaped serious injury despite falling around four metres from the ‘Cliffhanger Miami Trip’ ride as her friends watched helplessly.

Attendant Terry Reynolds, 28, of Dewsbury, failed to make sure the safety bar on the young girl’s seat was locked in the closed position, despite being told the same bar had opened two rides earlier.

The teenager, who has asked not to be named, was at the popular Copmanthorpe Carnival with friends last July. She was among a group of 16 people to get on to the Miami Trip ride, brought to the annual event for the first time.  The riders sit in a row as the ride takes them up, down and round at speed.

Less than a minute after the ride started, the restraint bar opened and the girl slid underneath, just missing moving steelwork below and hitting the ground. She was taken to hospital but was discharged later suffering bruising and abrasions.

Terry Reynolds of Showman’s Ground, Wakefield Road, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, pleaded guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act by failing to take reasonable care of those affected by his work activities.  He was given a three-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £750 compensation to the injured girl.

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Bus builder fined after Falkirk worker hit by steel platform

A bus manufacturer has been fined £50,000 after a worker was injured by a bus floor platform which slipped while being lifted into position.

Samuel Murray, 56, from Plains, North Lanarkshire was working in the welding bays of bus body manufacturing firm, Alexander Dennis Ltd, in Falkirk on 16 September 2009.

He had requested a forklift truck driver to lift and transport a steel floor platform weighing nearly 120 kilograms from the goods yard to the welding bays in the chassis shop.

Falkirk Sheriff Court heard that the forklift truck driver placed extensions on to the forks of the truck to move the platform but did not properly secure either the forks or the load. In the chassis shop, the platform was lowered and Mr Murray placed a sling underneath and around the uneven load for it to be manoeuvred onto the chassis. He then looped the sling around one of the extension forks.

Mr Murray, assisted by two other employees, began manually lining up the platform and chassis while the fork lift driver adjusted the angle the forks were tilted at and lowered them slightly. This motion resulted in one end of the sling coming loose causing one end of the platform to swing up and strike Mr Murray on the chin.

Mr Murray sustained a deep cut to his chin, which needed to be stitched and required emergency dental treatment for four broken teeth. He was off work for ten weeks.

Alexander Dennis Ltd, of Charlotte Square, Edinburgh pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Etc Act 1974 and was fined £50,000.

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Cannock firm fined after worker dragged into machine

A Cannock company has been fined after a man was pulled into unguarded rotating parts of a machine.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted storage equipment manufacturer Stakapal Ltd following the incident on 20 December 2010, when employee Adrian Taylor, 41, was working on a multi-roll forming machine, which makes metal shelving components from steel coil.

Mr Taylor was adjusting the rollers to produce brackets from an unusually thick steel sheet when his high-visibility vest and jacket became caught in the machine’s spindle.

He was pulled forward into the machinery and sustained a number of injuries including a cut to the back of his head, cuts above his right eye and on his back, a swollen cheek bone, bruises on his right arm and a puncture hole in his right elbow.

Stafford Magistrates’ Court heard the married father-of-two from Cannock, who has returned to work, still suffers from headaches and pain in his muscles.

Stakapal Ltd, of Betty’s Lane, Norton Canes, Cannock, pleaded guilty today to breaching Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. The company was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £5,500 costs.

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Construction company fined after worker suffers severe burns from electrical explosion

A worker sustained serious burns in an electrical explosion after a North London company failed to carry out basic Health and Safety checks.

On the 30th April 2010, the injured man was working on a construction site at Leonard Street, Islington, when the electrical blast occurred. City of London Magistrates’ Court heard that the explosion was caused when a main electrical supply cable to the site was cut during its removal.

The employee was working as a subcontractor on a large construction project which involved the refurbishment of three adjacent buildings at Leonard Street to include apartments and commercial use.  The man, 35, from East London, worked as sub-contractor for Pineview Interiors Ltd in Havering, London.

At the time of the incident, a 415 volt 3 phase temporary electrical supply had been provided to the site. The Court heard that on the morning of the incident the worker approached his supervisor, to explain that the electrical cable would need to be removed so that plaster board could be installed.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation revealed that Pineview Interiors Ltd undertook very limited enquiries as to whether this cable was in fact still live. Pineview workers then proceeded with its removal on the false assumption that the cable being described must have been one of the old, redundant cables from the pre-existing installation.

The worker climbed a step ladder with a hammer and chisel to attempt to remove the cable. After a couple of hits, the court heard that the worker recalls waking up on the floor with another employee putting flames out from the top half of his body. The worker was taken to hospital, suffering burns to between 30 to 35 percent of his body. He has had to have a skin graft from his legs to his body and arms. It is expected to take up to two years for his skin to recover.

Pineview Interiors Limited of Rainham, Havering, London, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. It was fined a total of £10,000 and ordered to pay costs of £4,183.

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Worker crushed in potato harvester

A Cupar farming partnership has been fined £112,500 after a worker was killed when he was crushed between the rollers of a potato harvester.

Keith Wannan, 34, from Cupar, died as he was replacing rubber sleeves on the rollers of a potato harvester to prepare it for the new harvesting season.

His employers, GJ Orr of Foodieash, were sentenced at Cupar Sheriff Court after an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the death on 6 September 2009.

The court heard that to replace the sleeves, the rollers needed to be removed and reinstated in the harvester.  On the morning of 6 September 2009, one of the partners, George Orr, assisted Mr Wannan. In order to put the rollers in the correct place he turned on power to the harvester using the controls of the tractor to which it was attached at the time. He then left Mr Wannan to complete the work.

When Mr Orr returned approximately an hour and a half later, he saw the tractor was running but could not see Mr Wannan. As he got closer he saw Mr Wannan trapped between the rollers.

Mr Wannan was transferred by air ambulance to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee but was pronounced dead on arrival.

GJ Orr, of Foodie Farm, Foodieash, Cupar pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Etc Act 1974.

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Street light workman fined over toddler injury

A toddler was injured when part of a streetlight was dropped by a workman in Hackney as she was passing underneath, a court has heard.

One-year-old Taahyra Kasham was being pushed along a London street in her pram by her mum, Rajna, when a reflector from a streetlight hit her on the head.

City of London Magistrates’ Court heard Mr Parker was instructed by his employers, Volker Highways Limited, to investigate a faulty street lamp on Gillett Square in Hackney on 20 January 2010.

However, when he detached the reflector at the top of the lamp post it fell toward the mother and daughter below. The one-year-old needed stitches to her wound, but her mum escaped unhurt.

The HSE investigation found the incident was entirely preventable. Temporary barriers should have been used to segregate pedestrians from the work area around the lamp before Mr Parker dismantled the reflector.

Joseph Parker, who at the time of the incident lived in Boxmoor Road, Romford, Essex, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 7(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. He was fined £2,250.00 and ordered to pay costs of £2,888.00

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Building site manager fined for ignoring safety notices

A Cardiff construction site manager has been fined after failing to comply with two safety orders issued to protect workers from injury.

Mr Haider Zaman, 53, trading as Pride Builders, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for ignoring two Improvement Notices served while he was refurbishing two residential properties in the Cathays area of Cardiff.

During an unannounced inspection of the two sites on 1 March 2011, HSE inspectors found sub-standard safety measures in relation to working at height, asbestos safety and structural stability and issued three Prohibition Notices ordering Mr Zaman to cease work immediately.

Two Improvement Notices relating to asbestos safety training and health and safety competence training were subsequently served to Mr Zaman.

Cardiff Magistrates’ Court heard the Improvement Notices served on Mr Zaman gave him until 10 May 2011 to make the necessary improvements. However, on returning to the site a week later HSE inspectors found the notices had not been complied with, and identified further sub-standard control measures for working at height.

Mr Haider Zaman, trading as Pride Builders, of 174 Mackintosh Place, Cardiff pleaded guilty to two breaches of Section 33 (1)(g) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. He was fined a total of £1,280 and ordered to pay costs of £1,500 as well as a victim surcharge of £15.

HSE serves Prohibition Notices where there is a clear, immediate risk of death or injury to employees or members of the public. Improvement Notices allow a limited time to raise safety standards.

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