Welcome to HSE prosecutions in brief. An overview of this weeks prosecutions by the HSE.
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Aberdeen company fined after man falls from scaffolding
Spark’s Mechanical Services Ltd, an Aberdeen electrical and refrigeration services company, has been fined £10,000 after a worker was seriously injured when he fell 2.6 metres from a scaffolding tower.
On 19 October 2010, Charles Howie was working on a scaffolding tower at Iceberg Ltd fish processing factory in Fraserburgh to remove two ceiling mounted refrigeration units from the coldstore. The units were attached to the ceiling by eight bolts, of which four had been removed and Mr Howie continued to work on the unit before a forklift truck was in place to support it.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Investigation found that at least one of the four remaining bolts fractured while Mr Howie was working on it, causing it to fall and strike the scaffold tower, throwing Mr Howie to the ground. Mr Howie suffered a collapsed lung and five fractured ribs and was unable to return to normal work duties for five months.
The HSE investigation found that Spark’s Mechanical Services Ltd, Mr Howie’s employer, had not ensured that suitable equipment was in place to support the refrigeration unit while it was being removed. The court was also told that the top guard rails were missing from the working side of the scaffolding platform.
At Peterhead Sheriff Court, on the 22nd September 2011, Spark’s Mechanical Services Limited, of Broadfold Road, Bridge of Don Industrial Estate, Aberdeen, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
Falls from height are the most common cause of fatal injuries in the workplace and are also responsible for many serious injuries. In 2009/10, 38 people in Britain died after work-related falls from height.
Read full story here.
Firm fined over cooling tower drowning
A maintenance contractor must pay a total of £155,000 after a man drowned after falling into a water filled sump at a North Wales power station.
Michael Benn, 37, from Glenrothes, Fife was one of a team of three working to remove sludge and debris from part of a cooling tower at Connah’s Quay Power Station on 27 August 2007.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found he was working in poorly lit conditions inside the cooling tower, and had entered an enclosed culvert to check the depth of water in the sump.
Colleagues working nearby heard Mr Benn’s distressed shouts, but when they got to the sump he had disappeared from view. His body was subsequently recovered from the bottom of the sump.
His employers, Epsco Ltd, of Arran Road, Perth, Scotland, were prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for failing to have a safe system of work in place.
At Mold Crown Court, the company pleaded guilty to a charge under Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. They were fined a total £35,000 and ordered to pay costs of £120,000.
Employers are required by law to carry out risk assessments and provide a safe system of work to ensure the safety of employees, especially in areas which are particularly hazardous.
Read full story here.
Shetland firm fined after worker injured in fall
A Shetland engineering company has been fined after a worker was severely injured when he fell while dismantling a redundant aerial mast.
David Thomson, 22, was working as part of a team removing the mast at the former RAF remote radar head at Unst, Shetland, when the incident happened on 23 August 2010.
Mr Thomson and his colleagues were working from inside the mast and were unbolting pieces of metal and wood and loading them into a telehandler with a bucket attachment, so that they could be safely lowered to the ground.
When they encountered some difficulty unbolting a piece of metal they could not fully reach from inside the mast, the men agreed to stand in the bucket attachment so that they could be lifted up and unbolt the metal from the outside.
They then balanced the piece of metal, which was about four metres long, on the bucket as it was lowered to the ground. But when they were still eight or nine feet off the ground the metal slipped, and a smaller piece of metal caught the back of Mr Thomson’s boiler suit, catapulting him out of the bucket to the ground below.
Mr Thomson fractured a vertebrae in his back, broke his left arm in two places, broke his thumbs and received multiple abrasions to his face and neck. He was off work for nine weeks and still has some residual pain in his back.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the incident found that although Ness Engineering Ltd had carried out a risk assessment for the dismantling operation, it was not part of the planned system of work to use the bucket attachment on the telehandler, nor to access the mast from the outside.
At Lerwick Sheriff Court today Ness Engineering Ltd, of Stuartfield, Virkie, Shetland pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Etc Act 1974 and was fined £26,700.
Read full story here.
Stoke foundry fined for worker’s burns
A foundry in Stoke-on-Trent has been fined after a man was left with serious injuries after being burned by molten metal.
Copper Alloys Ltd was prosecuted after the 28-year-old worker suffered severe burns to his left arm and upper legs when he fell into an unfenced pit, which housed a mould containing molten metal with a temperature of over 900 degrees celsius.
The man, who does not want to be named, needed skin grafts on his injured limbs, which remain scarred, following the incident on 5 May 2010.
During the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecution, Fenton Magistrates’ Court heard the worker is still undergoing physiotherapy for restricted movement in his arm, hand and fingers, and is so traumatised by the experience he has not been able to return to any work at the foundry.
The man had been using a long-handled tool to scrape impurities from the top of a freshly poured casting when he tripped and fell into an unfenced gap between the metal mould and the pit in which the mould was sited.
He used the tool to try to stop himself from falling into the five foot deep pit, but landed on the edge of the mould and his arm was briefly immersed in the molten metal. His upper legs were burned on the impurities just scraped from the mould.
HSE’s investigation found there was no guard railing around the edge of the mould pit and the company had failed to recognise the risk of workers falling into the pit.
Copper Alloys Ltd, of Glendale Street, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, admitted breaching Regulation 13(5) of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992. The company was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay £4,798 costs.
Read full story here.
Scaffold firm fined after putting workers at risk
A Hastings firm has been fined after handing over unsecured scaffolding to a client, putting builders at risk.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector visited a site at Claremont, Hastings, on 20 April 2010 where building repairs and external work were being carried out.
The inspector noted that scaffolding erected by Totalscaff (GB) Ltd, trading as Total Service Group (TSG), around the building had not been adequately tied, meaning it was unstable.
By law, all scaffolding must be inspected by a competent person before it can be used.
Hastings Magistrates’ Court was told the worker who undertook safety checks, Christian Ball, had been previously been advised of the need to adequately tie scaffolding but had overlooked this advice. He was also fined.
Totalscaff (GB) Ltd, of Ninfield Road, Bexhill-on-Sea, was found guilty and Christian Ball, 35, of West Hill Road, St Leonards-on-Sea, pleaded guilty to a breach of Regulation 28(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007. Totalscaff (GB) Ltd was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay £10,000 in costs, and Mr Ball was fined £2,500 and ordered to pay £2,274 costs.
Read full story here.
Chorley pub landlords prosecuted for failing to protect employees
The managers of a Chorley pub have been sentenced after they failed to buy insurance to protect their employees.
Stephen and Karen Martin were prosecuted by the HSE after they employed staff at the Hinds Head pub in Charnock Richard without purchasing Employers’ Liability Compulsory Insurance.
South Ribble Magistrates’ Court in Leyland heard the couple, who no longer run the pub, employed several people including a manager, a cleaner, a chef and waiting staff.
Despite being warned by HSE inspectors on several occasions between September 2010 and February 2011, the couple failed to address the issue.
Speaking after the hearing, HSE investigating inspector Shellie Bee said:
“Employers’ Liability Compulsory Insurance is a legal requirement and not an optional extra.
“Because Stephen and Karen Martin cut corners to save money, they were putting their employees in a position where they could have potentially suffered a life changing illness or injury at work and had no recourse to any kind of compensation.”
Stephen and Karen Martin, of Dudleston Heath, Ellesmere, Shropshire, were each found guilty of three breaches of Section 1(1) of the Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 by not insuring their employees against injury or disease sustained at work.
The couple, who failed to attend the hearing, were each fined £1,200 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £2,620 on 23 September 2011.
Read full story here.
Building company fined after construction worker seriously injured by falling stone
A 56-year-old self-employed construction worker suffered a serious head injury and permanent personality changes after a 10kg stone fell nearly three metres hitting him on the head at a building site in Abbots Leigh, near Bristol.
North Somerset Magistrates’ Court heard that Paul Hinton of Bristol had been hired by Elegance Building Contractors Ltd. to work at a domestic property on 6 September 2010. The work included raising the roof level of the building and cladding part of the property with feature stonework. The construction worker was not wearing a hard hat at the time of the incident.
Mr Hinton was airlifted to hospital by air ambulance and was off work until early May 2011.
The company used subcontractors for the work but failed to ensure brick guards were installed on the scaffolding, which are designed to stop materials falling below.
Speaking after the case, Health and Safety Executive Inspector, Mark Renouf, said:
“Mr Hinton has suffered major injuries and the incident could very well have led to a fatality. The use of hard hats was not common on this site however the greater failing is not stopping materials from falling in the first place.
Elegance Building Contractors Ltd, of Princess Victoria Street, Bristol, pleaded guilty to a breach of Regulation 10 (1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and was fined £6,000 and ordered to pay costs of £4,733 at the hearing on Friday 23 September 2011.
Read full story here.
