Welcome to HSE prosecutions in brief. An overview of this weeks prosecutions by the HSE.
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Global manufacturer prosecuted over factory worker’s death
A global manufacturer has been fined £180,000 after a worker was killed at an Andrex factory in Barrow-in-Furness.
Christopher Massey died after being struck by a piece of machinery.
Christopher Massey, a former Barrow Raiders rugby player, was struck by a piece of machinery while working on a night shift at the Kimberly-Clark plant on Park Road on 8 November 2007.
The company was prosecuted by the HSE after an investigation found a dangerous part of a machine, used to produce rolls of Andrex toilet paper, had been left unguarded.
Preston Crown Court heard the 28-year-old had been looking through a gap in the machine to make sure the tissue was being fed through correctly.
As he checked inside the machine at around 5.10am, it began to move a large, two-metre wide reel of tissue into place, striking him on the head. His body was discovered around twenty minutes later by colleagues shortly before the end of their shift.
The HSE investigation found the machine had been modified four months earlier so that reels of two-ply as well as single-ply toilet paper could be fed through it.
The part of the machine used to hold the large reels of tissue had been moved back so that another piece of machinery could be added to handle the two-ply toilet paper. This created a potentially dangerous gap which Mr Massey and other workers had used to check the tissue was being fed through correctly.
The court was told the factory had been short-staffed on the night of Mr Massey’s death, with two of the four workers in the team off sick. He was moved to work on the part of the machine that fed through the giant reels, despite not having had training on how to operate it since its modification.
The gap in the machine gave him the best vantage point to check the tissue, and none of the workers had been told it was not safe to stand in that position. Following his death the company fitted two sheets of clear plastic over the gap which allowed employees to check the machine without being put at risk.
Kimberly-Clark Ltd pleaded guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 by failing to ensure the safety of its employees. The company, of Tower View, Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent, was ordered to pay £20,000 in prosecution costs in addition to the fine of £180,000 on 14 December 2011.
Read full story here.
UK Coal sentenced for safety failings that cost four lives
UK Coal Mining Ltd has been ordered to pay £1.2 million in fines and costs for safety failings that cost the lives of four mineworkers in separate incidents at two collieries in Nottinghamshire and the East Midlands.
The company, of Harworth Park, Blyth Road, Harworth, Nottinghamshire, was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court on the 14 December for four breaches of Section 2(1) and three breaches of Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 in connection to the deaths.
UK Coal pleaded guilty to all seven breaches at an earlier hearing in proceedings brought by the Health and Safety Executive.
- The fatal incidents are outlined as follows:
- 19 June 2006, supervisor Trevor Steeples, from West Bridgford, Notts, died at Daw Mill colliery, near Coventry. Mr Steeples was asphyxiated due to oxygen deprivation when he was exposed to high levels of methane in part of the mine.
- 6 August 2006, mineworker Paul Hunt, from Swadlincote, Derbyshire, died at Daw Mill after falling from a poorly maintained underground transporter into the path of a moving ‘train’. UK Coal accepted failing to prevent unsafe man-riding on the transporter and failing to replace the decaying system.
- 17 January 2007, mineworker Anthony Garrigan, from Thorne, near Doncaster, died at Daw Mill while assisting others to install rockbolts to keep a tunnel support wall in place. He was crushed when 100-plus tonnes of inadequately supported coal and stone collapsed on top of him. The section of tunnel had a history of collapses and UK Coal should have introduced a safer system of support.
- 3 November 2007, mineworker Paul Milner, from Church Warsop, Notts, died at Welbeck colliery, Meden Vale, Nottinghamshire. Mr Milner was attempting to install additional roof supports so that equipment could be salvaged from a coal face that had ceased production. He was crushed under approximately 90 tonnes of rock when a roof area collapsed. A suitable code of practice was agreed to provide a safe system of work, but the code was not adequately enforced by UK Coal.
UK Coal was ordered to pay a fine of £112,500 and £187,500 costs for each fatality, totalling £1.2m.
Read full story here
Fines after roofer suffers severe injuries
Three contractors from Essex have been fined a total of £53,000 after a roofer fell five metres, sustaining life threatening injuries that confined him to a wheelchair.
Jeremy Bishop, 46 from Romford was re-roofing a domestic property in Loughton when he fell from the scaffolding to the ground below.
He suffered severe injuries to his head, chest and back and was airlifted to the Royal London Hospital where he spent three weeks in intensive care before being transferred to a specialist spinal injuries unit for 8 months of intensive rehabilitation treatment.
The HSE prosecuted those involved over the incident which occurred on 5 January 2010.
Vincent Page, 46, and his firm V.Page Building Services Ltd of Epping were contracted to build an extension. The roofing was sub-contracted to Quality Roofs Ltd of Chingford and its director Alan Tyler, 64, and the scaffolding to Philip Blakeman, 58, (trading as Access Specialists) of Romford.
Harlow Magistrates’ Court heard how following the incident HSE found that intermediate guard rails (mid rails) had not been installed along the entire rear elevation of the scaffolding and there was nothing in place to prevent falls from the gable ends of the house. Those involved had failed to ensure the necessary guardrails had been installed.
The HSE served V.Page Building Services Ltd with a Prohibition Notice to prevent further work on the roof until guard rails were installed.
Director of V.Page Building Services Ltd, Vincent Page, 46, of Stanford Rivers Road, Ongar admitted breaching Regulations 8(a) and 12(4) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. Mr Page was fined £20,000 with £8,000 costs.
Quality Roofs Ltd and its director Alan Tyler, 64, of Brook Gardens, Chingford pleaded guilty to the same offences. The company was fined £10,000 with £4,000 costs. Mr Tyler was fined £20,000 with costs of £4,000.
Philip Blakeman, 58, trading as Access Specialists, of Queensway, Ongar, admitted breaching Regulation 8(a) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and was fined £3,000 with costs of £2,000.
Read full story here
Companies fined after worker breaks back in fall
Anson Packaging Ltd and Cambs Compressor Engineering Ltd, two companies based in Ely, have been fined a total of £68,030 with £37,743.72 costs after a 24-year-old worker broke his back in a fall from a roof void.
Anthony Strong, a pipe fitter employed by subcontractor Cambs Compressor Engineering Ltd at the time, was tasked to install pipe work required for the installation of a moulding machine at Anson Packaging’s premises At Elean Business Park, Sutton, on 29 October 2008.
Part of the pipe work installation was taking place in the roof void above a suspended ceiling, a distance of 6.5 metres to the factory floor, and required that Mr Strong and a co-worker use a crawl board to travel from the protected walkways in the roof to the place where the pipe work was to be installed. Both men had harnesses but they were unable to use them effectively due to a lack of suitable attachment points in the roof void. At times both men had to detach themselves completely to move across the void to the work position.
Mr Strong was using the crawl board between beams in the roof void to traverse to his working position when he fell to the floor, suffering fractures to his spine, skull and ribs.
An investigation by the HSE found that, despite the fact that some measures were taken to assess risk and some work at height equipment was provided prior to the work being carried out, both Anson Packaging and its subcontractor Cambs Compressor Engineering had failed to ensure that Mr Strong and his co-worker were competent to undertake work at height and given appropriate equipment and a safe system of work.
The two companies appeared at Cambridge Crown Court.
Anson Packaging has admitted breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
Cambs Compressor Engineering admitted breaching Section 2(1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and Regulation 5 of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.
Anson Packaging was fined £50,015.00 with £29,291.09 costs, while Cambs Compressor Engineering was fined £18,015 with £8,452.63 costs.
Read full story here.
Blacksmith fined after worker falls from roof
A self-employed blacksmith and fabricator has been fined after one of his employees was severely injured after falling more than seven metres from a roof he was working on.
Martin Mundie, 23, from St Fergus, Aberdeenshire, was employed by Joseph Adams and was part of a team carrying out work at Muirden Farm, Turriff, Aberdeenshire, to convert a former pig shed into a workshop.
On 10 March 2009, Mr Mundie and three other workers climbed a ladder onto the roof to begin replacing the sheets and capping. A short time into the work, there was a loud crack and one of Mr Mundie’s colleagues turned around to see him disappearing through a skylight. He fell approximately 8 metres to the concrete floor below.
He sustained a broken arm and wrist, and needed a bone graft as well as two operations to insert three plates and six pins. He was off work for ten months and still has continuing pain in his arm with numbness and limited movement, as well as the scars left by his operations. He no longer works for Joseph Adams.
An investigation by the HSE found that at no time before work started, or while it was ongoing, had Joseph Adams assessed any of the risks involved or put a safe system of work in place. HSE inspectors also found that none of the workers had any safety provision while on the roof.
At Banff Sheriff Court today Joseph Adams of Backhill Farm, Mintlaw, Aberdeenshire was fined £4,500 after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to breaching Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
Read full story here.
Bus company in court after apprentice’s ordeal
One of South Yorkshire’s main bus operators has been sentenced for safety breaches after a teenage apprentice was trapped under a 14 tonne bus when its air suspension failed.
Ben Burgin, who was then 17, needed restorative plastic surgery to his nose and eye socket following the incident at Stagecoach Yorkshire’s garage in Wakefield Road, Barnsley, on 7 September 2009.
Barnsley Magistrates’ Court heard Mr Burgin, from Penistone, was working alongside an experienced fitter to correct a braking fault on a bus fitted with an air suspension system. Rather than moving the bus over an inspection pit, they attempted to fix the fault with the bus still on the garage floor.
Mr Burgin slid beneath the bus near the front passenger wheel and was making adjustments when the air suspension failed suddenly and the bus dropped on him, badly injuring his face. He was freed when another worker rushed to help and they were able to raise the bus sufficiently to get him out.
The incident was investigated by the HSE which brought the prosecution against the operator’s owners, Yorkshire Traction Company Ltd of Stockport, Cheshire.
The company, of Dawbank, Stockport, pleaded guilty to two offences under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was fined a total of £15,000 and ordered to pay £8,473 in costs.
Read full story here.
