Welcome to HSE prosecutions in brief. A selection of the latest prosecutions by the HSE. Where possible, links are provided to relevant British Standards, guidance and publications.
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Firm fined for worker’s injuries at Caerphilly factory
An employee suffered leg injuries when a reversing forklift truck struck him while working at a cardboard factory.
Michael Jones, of Abercarn, was inspecting production in an area of the factory at the Prince of Wales Industrial Estate, Abercarn, Caerphilly when the incident happened on 11 April 2011.
Mr Jones’ employer, Smurfit Kappa, was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay £14,000 in costs by Caerphilly Magistrates in a prosecution brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) today (26 November).
The court was told that the forklift truck was reversing around a storage area to drop off an empty pallet when it struck Mr Jones, who was carrying out routine work on stock in the area. Although the forklift was travelling at a slow speed, Mr Jones suffered a broken ankle and fractured heel and subsequently developed deep vein thrombosis.
An investigation by the HSE revealed that the forklift was fitted with reversing alarms, but these were not audible over the noise in the production area. No other safety measures were used, such as mirrors or flashing lights on the vehicles.
Although the company had a transport policy, they had not adequately assessed the risk to all pedestrians and there were inadequate measures in place to separate pedestrians from forklift vehicles in the production area. Despite the transport policy highlighting the need for other safety devices such as mirrors, these were not fitted to the vehicles.
Food company fined for failing to protect workers
A global ingredients company has been fined for safety failings after two workers were seriously injured in separate incidents a year apart at its UK manufacturing base near Hitchin.
Jas Bowman and Sons Ltd was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for not doing enough to protect people working at height at Ickleford Mill in Ickleford.
In the first incident, on 7 July 2009, a maintenance engineer fell more than two metres while attempting to clean flour product from inside an elevated conveyor. He stood on the frame of a nearby machine to remove upper guarding on the conveyor but slipped, fracturing his right shoulder blade and a vertebra in his spine when he hit the floor below.
A year later, on 15 July 2010, an electrical sub contractor fell down a lift shaft while carrying out maintenance work on a jammed second floor lift door. A panel reading indicated the lift was at second floor level. He manually opened the door by overriding a release mechanism and stepped in but fell into the shaft because the lift car had returned to the ground floor.
He was following instructions from two Bowman employees at the time and fractured his skull, developed a cranial blood clot, severed his right ear, which was almost completely detached from his head, and sustained extensive bruising as a result of the fall. He was off work for 18 months as a result of his injuries.
Cambridge Crown Court heard today (27 November) that a HSE investigation into both incidents identified serious failings with the work not being properly planned, supervised or carried out in a safe manner.
Jas Bowman and Sons Ltd, of Ickleford Mill, Ickleford, pleaded guilty to one breach of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and two breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The company was fined £40,000 and ordered to pay £20,282 in costs.
Newquay building contractor fined for ignoring safety risks
A Newquay building contractor has been fined for allowing multiple safety failings at a new-build construction site, exposing workers to serious risk of injury.
Bodmin Magistrates’ Court heard today (28 Nov) that Paul David Brannan was the principal contractor at the four-storey apartment block in Mount Wise, Newquay.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that numerous ‘fall from height’ risks were observed at the site, including unprotected edges in floor-to-ceiling window openings, the lift shaft and stairwell. Scaffolding was also incomplete.
A health and safety inspection had been carried out by a competent advisor two months before the HSE inspection. The fall risks were highlighted by the advisor, yet no effective action had been taken by Mr Brannan to make improvements or to eliminate the safety risks.
Paul David Brannan, of Ulalia Road, Newquay, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. He was fined £3,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1,800.
Photo & Comments from the HSE.
Packaging company prosecuted after worker injured
An Essex packaging company has been fined after one of its employees sustained a serious hand injury on an unguarded laminating machine.
Gary Dean, of Redstock Road, Southend-on-Sea, had the skin on the palm of his left hand torn away in the incident at Frith’s Flexible Packaging, in Southend, on 26 September 2011.
Sourthend Magistrates’ Court heard today (28 November) that he was using a glue laminating machine when he noticed an indent mark on a finished product. He put his left hand into the machine via an unguarded portal to scrape away dried glue residue from a roller that had caused the blemish, but his whole hand was drawn into the roller and the palm of his left hand was de-gloved.
Mr Dean was hospitalised for two days and required emergency surgery. This was followed by several months of physiotherapy to regain movement between his thumb and first finger, before he finally returned to work after two and a half months.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigated the incident and found that Mr Dean had removed an interlocked guard on the laminating machine some six years earlier to allow him to set the machine up more easily. He and other employees, including his supervisor, had used the machine without the guard ever since.
Had the guard been in place they would have been unable to access dangerous moving parts, including the roller, while the machine was in operation.
HSE inspectors also found that although a risk assessment and a safe system of work were available for the laminator they were very basic, did not adequately set out the control measures or troubleshooting guidance; and staff were largely unaware they existed.
Frith’s Flexible Packaging was served an Improvement Notice by HSE to review their training plan, incorporating revised risk assessments and a safe system of work.
Follow-up enquiries revealed that a second laminating machine at the site had also had its guard removed, and that the company had failed to address this issue following Mr Dean’s incident. HSE therefore served another Improvement Notice for guarding requirements and a third requiring ‘competent person’ training to enable the company to properly manage its health and safety responsibilities.
Frith’s Flexible Packaging Ltd, of Coopers Way, Temple Farm Industrial Estate, Southend-on-Sea, was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay £2,046 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
National auto centre fined
A well-known autocentre chain has been sentenced for safety failings after a worker was struck by a reversing transit van at its depot in Acocks Green, Birmingham.
Michelle Sloan, 45,from Aston, was parked in front of the Halfords Autocentre reception to unload some parts. She was reaching into the back of the vehicle when a transit van reversed into her door, closing it and trapping her legs.
The door crushed both her knees causing a torn tendon in her left knee and a severed tendon in the right one. A year after the incident she is still struggling to walk and has been unable to return to work.
Halfords Autocentres Limited was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following its investigation into the incident on 25 October 2011.
Birmingham Magistrates’ Court heard today (28 Nov) that Halfords failed to put suitable control measures in place to separate pedestrians and vehicles on the site Had they done so, the incident would not have happened.
Halfords Autocentres Limited of Icknield Street Drive, Washford West, Redditch, Worcestershire, pleaded guilty to a breach of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 for failing to ensure workers and vehicles could move safely around the site. The company was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay £5,000 in costs.
Property developer sentenced over Manchester gas explosion
A property development firm has been fined £100,000 following a major gas explosion that destroyed dozens of homes in South Manchester.
PJ Livesey Group Ltd was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following the blast at the Didsbury Gate development on 8 December 2009.
Manchester Crown Court heard today (29 November 2012) that the former Withington Hospital building on Nell Lane was being converted into houses and apartments when a worker cut through a six-inch gas pipe in an underground tunnel.
The 41-year-old from Elton, Cheshire, who has asked not to be named, suffered burns to his hands and face when gas inside the pipe ignited. About an hour later, gas that had continued to leak from the damaged pipe ignited again causing an explosion that destroyed a large part of the site.
The emergency services evacuated residents from hundreds of homes following the initial gas leak, including 21 apartments at the Didsbury Gate development which already had people living in them.
Businesses, three schools, a hospital, two health units and a police station also had to be evacuated, and the Urban Search and Rescue team was brought in to search the rubble to see if anyone was trapped.
Debris from the site landed on The Birches Primary School nearby, damaging buildings, a play area and the power supply for the school.
The court was told that PJ Livesey Group, the principal contractor for the development, had obtained a diagram from National Grid during the planning stages of the project which showed a gas main running into the site.
However, the company did not arrange for a detailed survey to be carried out to find out where the pipe ran, and wrongly informed workers on the site that the gas pipes had been decommissioned.
PJ Livesey Group Ltd pleaded guilty to two breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 after failing to ensure people’s safety. The company, of Beacon Road West in Trafford Park, was fined £100,000 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £21,404.
Photos & Comments from the HSE
Leeds print firm fined
A Leeds printing business has been prosecuted for regularly putting its workers in danger during routine stocktaking at its factory in Wortley.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) told Leeds Magistrates today (30 Nov) that First Class Post Ltd allowed employees to be lifted to heights of almost six metres in a box perched on a forklift truck. The plastic box wasn’t fixed to the forklift and there was no protection from falls for the workers.
The court was told HSE brought the prosecution after finding out about the company’s stocktaking practice.
An HSE investigation discovered employees were regularly put at risk during quarterly stock checks. They were lifted five to six metres in an unsuitable plastic box or a cage balanced on the forks of the truck. The risk of falling was magnified as there was no way to secure the box to the truck forks and no fixing points in the box to which a safety harness could be attached.
First Class Post Ltd of Silver Royd Business Park, Wortley, pleaded guilty to breaching the Work at Height Regulations 2005. The firm was fined £2,500 and ordered to pay £1,041 in costs.
Chorley bottling firm in court over forklift injuries
A bottling firm in Chorley has appeared in court after one of its employees was injured while being lifted on the prongs on a forklift truck.
The 39-year-old worker from Preston, who has asked not to be named, was filmed on CCTV standing on the forks of the vehicle as it lifted him and a battery-operated pallet truck across the warehouse floor at H&A Prestige Packing Company Ltd.
As the vehicle moved, the pallet truck overbalanced and fell from the forklift. The worker tried to hold on but also lost his balance and was caught between the forks on the pallet truck.
He avoided being burned by the battery acid that leaked onto the floor, but suffered bruising to his right hip and thigh.
H&A Prestige Packing was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) today (30 November 2012) following the incident at its factory at Ackhurst Business Park on Ackhurst Road on 31 May last year.
South Ribble Magistrates’ Court, in Leyland, was told the company had been hired to bottle an energy drink for export that is used during fasting. The pallets of bottles were heavier than usual, each weighing one-and-a-quarter tonnes, so a pallet truck was used to move them inside the containers.
On the day of the incident, the warehouse shift manager had stood on the prongs on the forklift on four separate occasions so that the pallet truck could be lifted in and out of the containers. When he finished his shift at lunchtime, he asked another worker to take over. It was this worker who fell from the forklift approximately 40 minutes later.
A HSE investigation found that several workers and managers had been seen standing on the prongs on forklift trucks on several occasions prior to the incident. However, the behaviour had remained unchallenged by two layers of management.
H&A Prestige Packing Company Ltd pleaded guilty to single breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
The company was fined £14,000 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £6,657 for the offences, which relate to failing to ensure the safety of workers and failing to carry out a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks.
