Welcome to HSE prosecutions in brief. A selection of the latest prosecutions by the HSE.
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Dairy firm sentenced over explosion at Allerdale factory
A national dairy firm has been sentenced following a major explosion at its cheese factory in Cumbria.
The boiler house at Aspatria Creamery, on Station Road in Aspatria, was partially destroyed in the blast on 29 July 2010, which threw debris more than 100 metres across the site.
No one was injured in the incident despite the force of the explosion lifting the roof off the building and blowing out part of two ground floor walls.
The First Milk Cheese Company Ltd was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after an investigation found a blocked vent on the calorifier – a water heating and storage system – had caused it to explode.
Carlisle Magistrates’ Court heard today (15 August 2012) that the calorifier could hold up to 9,000 litres of water and was used to produce hot water for washing down the dairy.
Maintenance engineers at the plant had been manually controlling the steam supply valve to the calorifier after the automatic control broke down.
The HSE investigation found the vent pipe on the tank, which should have allowed water to escape if it became too hot, had become completely blocked with calcium carbonate – possibly over several years.
This meant the pressure inside the tank continued to rise, with the temperature of the water reaching almost 150 degrees Celsius, before it eventually caused an explosion.
The First Milk Cheese Company Ltd pleaded guilty to a breach of the Pressure Systems Safety Regulations 2000 by failing to ensure the vent pipe on the calorifier was kept clear.
The company, of Pickhill Lane, Wrexham, was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay £36,064 in prosecution costs.
Comments from the HSE through the link.
British standards relating to water heating and storage systems.
Firm fined after worker injured at waste site
A Staffordshire environmental waste company has been fined after an employee was crushed by a reversing vehicle.
The 23-year-old man from Cannock was handpicking waste from a skip at Rugeley Environmental Waste Services Ltd on 5 September 2011 when a skid steer loader reversed into him, pinning him against the skip.
The man suffered soft tissue injuries to his groin and was taken to hospital by air ambulance. He went back to work after several weeks but has since left the company.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) revealed the vehicle was being used in a relatively confined space and no measures were in place to segregate vehicles and pedestrians.
The investigation also revealed the company had failed to carry out a risk assessment of its workplace transport activities.
Rugeley Environmental Waste Services Ltd, of The Embankment, Power Station Road, Rugeley, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 by failing to ensure the safety of employees. Today, Stafford Magistrates’ Court fined the firm £5,000 and ordered it to pay costs of £4,306.
Comments from the HSE through the link.
British Standards relating to risk assessments.
Firm fined after workers exposed to risk of electric shock
A Tyneside firm has been fined after an electrical system was left in a dangerous condition exposing workers to the risk of electric shock or electrocution.
Darlington Magistrates’ Court heard yesterday (16 August) that Coolcheck Refrigeration Ltd failed to ensure parts of an electrical system were left in a safe condition following work carried out to disconnect a refrigerated counter unit at business premises in Newgate Street, Bishop Auckland.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted the company after its investigation found that an employee of Coolcheck Refrigeration Ltd had disconnected the unit and placed electrical tape over the switch of the circuit breaker to indicate that the circuit should remain isolated. However the copper conducting wires of the disconnected cable became dangerously exposed.
The court was told that two weeks later a worker in the building moved the cable to carry out some work. When he did this the copper conducting wires touched the wall of the building and an electrical short circuit occurred.
Coolcheck Refrigeration Ltd, of Unit D4 Bergen Close, Tyne Tunnel Trading Estate, North Shields, was fined a total of £7,000 and ordered to pay £2,500 costs after pleading guilty to breaching Regulation 4(3) of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989.
Comments from the HSE through the link.
British Standards relating to risk assessments.
Fraudsters collude to trick independent school
Two men colluded with each other to commit fraud by falsifying a record stating that a school in Abingdon had been properly cleaned of asbestos.
The “unusual fraud” was confirmed by detective work by one of the men’s employers using GPS tracking technology on the employee’s company van.
The deception by the two men was uncovered after an engineer went to Our Lady’s Abingdon school to start plumbing work but could see that asbestos material had been left, putting him and others at risk of exposure to dangerous fibres.
He reported it to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which investigated and brought a prosecution against both men.
Oxford Magistrates’ Court heard today (17 August) that Richard (Ricky) Gray, an asbestos analyst, of Hoddesdon, Herts, and David Gray (no relation), of Botley, Oxford, a supervisor for a licensed asbestos contractor, had committed the offence on Sunday 25 July 2010, probably just to escape a few hours’ work.
HSE found David Gray’s employer, Maylarch Environmental Ltd, had been hired to carry out an environmental clean of the area affected by asbestos between 21 and 25 July. Ricky Gray’s employer, environmental consultants Tersus Ltd, had been contracted to provide a final independent assessment of the clean-up on 25 July, which is required for all asbestos removal work.
On 27 July, H&E Engineers from Oxford arrived at the school to carry out boiler work. Supervisor Trevor Benfield was immediately concerned that asbestos materials had been left in a poor condition and alerted HSE.
During the investigation HSE discovered that Tersus had believed their assessment had been properly signed-off as it had a report from employee Ricky Gray. However, when told of the conditions found at the school, it carried out its own internal investigation.
Tersus used GPS tracking and found that Ricky Gray’s van had been driven to a service station at Junction 8 on the M40 and back to his home address on 25 July – not to the school site where the assessment was due to take place.
He later admitted he had met David Gray there and together they had fabricated the clearance report to make it look as though the assessment had been carried out.
Ricky Gray, of Taverners Way, Hoddesdon, was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay £1,000 in costs; and David Gray of Arthray Road, Botley, was fined £1,000 with £250 costs after both pleaded guilty to a breach of Section 7 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act.
Comments from the HSE through the link.
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