A MIDDLESBROUGH-based cable supply company has been fined £27,500 after two accidents where their employees were injured at work. Cleveland Cable was found guilty of breaching health and safety laws after the incidents at its Riverside Park site in 2010.
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In August, 2010, a 17-year-old employee was injured after a loaded pallet fell from a fork lift truck and crushed his ankle. His injuries required hospital treatment for severe bruising.
In December, 2010 a 50-year-old member of staff suffered serious injuries when he was crushed between two cable drums weighing about 3.5 tonnes each. He was treated at The James Cook University Hospital for internal bleeding and extensive bruising.
Environmental Health Officers from Middlesbrough Council, who investigated the accidents, found the company had failed to protect the safety of employees by failing to ensure work activities were properly risk-assessed and that the accidents had been caused through unsafe working practices.
Senior Environmental Health Officer Kathleen Foreman said: “These accidents were totally preventable and both had the potential to be life-threatening.
“They were the result of a gross failure by the company to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment for the work activities and implement safe working practices.”
Cleveland Cable Ltd was charged under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 with failing to provide their employees with safe systems of work, and failing to provide such instruction, training and supervision that was necessary to ensure the safety of their employees.
After pleading guilty to the charges at Teesside Magistrates’ Court on Monday, June 25, the company was fined £7,500 for the first accident and the maximum fine of £20,000 for the second. They were also ordered to pay £5,148 towards the Council’s costs with a £15 victim surcharge.
Councillor Brenda Thompson, Middlesbrough Council’s Executive Member for Public Health and Sport, said: “Health and safety laws are there to protect the safety of workers. Any serious breach of those laws can have significant consequences.
“The Council has a duty to investigate workplace accidents and take steps to protect the safety of employees and members of the public from hazards in the workplace.
“Where serious breaches of health and safety law are found they are thoroughly investigated and, where necessary, enforcement action will be taken.”
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