Welcome to HSE prosecutions in brief. An overview of this weeks prosecutions by the HSE.
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Seven survive concrete collapse at John Moores University
Seven construction workers were lucky to survive when more than 250 tonnes of wet concrete collapsed at Liverpool John Moores University, a court has been told.
Two companies have been fined a total of £100,000 over the incident, which occurred during the construction of an atrium for a new Art and Design Academy at the university.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that workers had been pumping concrete onto the third floor of the building for most of the day on 19 September 2007 when the supporting scaffolding holding up the concrete suddenly collapsed. The workers’ injuries included cement burns to their skin and eyes, and bone fractures.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found both the principal contractor for the project, Wates Construction Ltd, and the concrete subcontractor, MPB Structures Ltd, allowed the supporting scaffolding to be erected from a preliminary design, clearly marked ‘for discussion and pricing purposes only’.
The drawing did not include all the information needed to erect the scaffolding correctly or safely. The companies also failed to ensure the scaffolding was checked before allowing the concrete to be poured.
Both companies admitted breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 by putting workers at risk. Wates Construction Ltd, of Station Approach in Leatherhead, Surrey, was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay £35,591 in prosecution costs on 10 April 2012.
MPB Structures Ltd, of Crucible Road in Corby, Northamptonshire, was also fined £50,000 with costs of £35,362.
Comments from the HSe through the link.
Scaffold collapse injuries lead to fine
A former scaffolding company director has been fined after two employees were injured in a scaffold collapse.
A 26-year-old man working for Robert Leslie Butler fractured his left ankle and right heel as he jumped six metres from a scaffold tower at student accommodation on Radford Boulevard, Nottingham, on 24 January 2011, as it fell to the ground.
A second employee, 46, was working at a height of around 10 metres. He managed to hang on to the scaffold as it fell. It crashed into the building opposite and he was able to slide down to the ground, suffering minor injuries.
The men, both of whom have asked not to be named, were in the process of dismantling the scaffold.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found the scaffold tower had not been erected to industry standards and had not been fitted with adequate ties to secure it to the building.
Robert Leslie Butler, 46, of Owthorpe Close, Top Valley, Nottingham pleaded guilty breaching Regulations 4(1)(c) and 8(b)(ii) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 by virtue of Section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. Today Nottingham magistrates fined him a total of £3,000 and ordered him to pay costs of £2,000.
Comments from the HSE through the link.
Construction firm fined after worker’s narrow escape
A construction worker defied death after falling four metres from the cage of a 20-tonnes cherry-picker into the path of a moving bus, which then pushed him another 15 metres along the Euston Road.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted national construction firm Galliford Try Construction Limited for serious safety failings which led to Camden worker Leszek Soltysiak suffering severe injuries.
The employee was part of a two-man team brought in by Galliford Try to fix snagging issues at the iconic St Pancras Renaissance Hotel and Chambers, which had just undergone a £103 million restoration by the company.
Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard the firm arranged for two workers from the logistics team to remove tape from the outside of an apartment window on the third floor of the residential block in the early hours of 4 March 2011.
As scaffolding had been removed from the site, the men had to move a cherrypicker from a compound in Euston Road to another in Midland Road to enable them to carry out the job. Mr Soltysiak began to reverse the machine out of the exit onto Euston Road, raising his operator platform to clear the fencing. Deciding it was clear, he continued backing out unaware that a double-decker bus had just turned into the road.
The second worker waved at the bus to try to get it to stop but it was dark and the bus driver saw nothing. The top of the bus hit the operator platform overhanging the road forcing the jib to slew across and hit a brick gate post. The collision catapulted the driver from the platform and he fell to the ground in front of the still moving bus.
The bus driver braked, thinking he had hit a tree and stopped about 15 metres further along. Mr Soltysiak was found partially underneath the front nearside. He suffered serious head, arm, pelvis and leg injuries and was only able to return to work earlier this year.
Galliford Try Construction Limited, of Cowley Business Park, Uxbridge, Middlesex, was fined a total of £12,000 and ordered to pay full costs of £16,459.70 after pleading guilty to two serious breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
Read full story here.
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