MacBrac

Parish council fined for church fall

macbrac-admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 14:41:42 +0000

A joiner was left paralysed from the waist down after falling in a South Kensington parish church. A rail dropped when he leant on it, and he fell 3 metres, breaking his back. HSE inspection found that it could have been easily prevented if adequate edge protection had been permanently installed.

The Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of Holy Trinity Brompton with St Paul Onslow Square pleaded guilty to breaching s3(1) of the HSWA 1974 at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 25 April. It was fined £5000 and ordered to pay full costs of £4458.

Full details on HSE website

Legal Notes:

Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act states “It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risk to their health and safety”

Macbrac Business Safety can train employees in Health and Safety, including the NEBOSH General Certificate and IOSH “Managing Safely”. Courses are available in Telford, Shropshire and in Central London. Contact us for more details.

MacBrac Training & Development offers courses in training, including the Award in preparing to teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector (PTLLS). Courses are available in Telford, Shropshire. Contact us for more details.

£110,000 fine + £60,000 costs for fork-lift accident

macbrac-admin — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:53:10 +0000

A reversing fork-lift truck knocked over a lorry driver in Cardiff docks. It ran over his right leg, which later had to be amputated below the knee.

A subsequent HSE visit found that Cargo Services (UK) Ltd, operators of the truck, had no measures in place to separate vehicles and pedestrians at the site. Its reversing alarm and horn were both broken; it had no reversing mirrors, and its warning lights were broken. Maintenance records showed the horn had a recurring fault for more than four years.

Cargo Services (UK) Ltd was found guilty of breaching s3(1) of the HSWA 1974 following a trial at Cardiff Crown Court. Sentencing took place on 4 April, and the company was fined £110,000 and ordered to pay £60,246 in costs.

Legal Notes:

Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act states “It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risk to their health and safety”

Myth busting

macbrac-admin — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:39:22 +0000

We’re all familar with the “Elf and Safety” excuse for avoiding or forbidding certain actions and activities. The HSE has set up an independent Myth Busters Challenge Panel to scrutinize such decisions. If you think a decision or advice that you have been given in the name of health and safety is wrong, or disproportionate to what you are doing, you can complain to the panel. It will investigate and publish its findings on the HSE website

Full details on HSE website

50 fatalities – 1 in 5 fail safety checks: a year in construction

macbrac-admin — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 09:07:12 +0000

There were 50 fatalities in construction last year (2010-11). As part of a national initiative to improve construction site safety, inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive visited a total 3237 sites and saw 4080 contractors, but 581 sites were found to have practices that put workers at risk with a total of 870 enforcement notices issued and in 603 instances work had to stop immediately.

Full details on HSE website

£10,000 fine for fall

macbrac-admin — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:44:55 +0000

The worker at Hutchinson Technical Services (HTS) Ltd’s premises in Ditton Road, Widnes had been allowed to work on top of a chemical storage tank without any measures in place to prevent him being injured in a fall. When chemical vapour inside the tank set alight, causing an explosion, he was thrown from the tank and fell around two and a half metres, landing on a metal girder below. He was knocked unconscious and suffered burns on his right arm and right leg, as well as bruising to his ribs. He was kept in hospital overnight and was off work for several weeks as a result of his injuries.

HTS, of Fleming Road in Middlesborough, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 by failing to ensure suitable measures were in place to prevent workers being injured in a fall. The company was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £3,588 in prosecution costs on 26 March 2012.

Full details on HSE website

Legal Notes:

Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 states: “Where work is carried out at height, every employer shall take suitable and sufficient measures to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, any person falling a distance liable to cause personal injury.”

11,000 volt cable cut – £60,000 in fines

macbrac-admin — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 09:55:39 +0000

A demolition worker in Worcester was told to cut through a cable. It was still live – connected to a switching unit on a substation on the site. He was engulfed by flames when the machine he was using to cut through the cable came into contact with the live conductors. He suffered 20 per cent burns, which left him with permanent disabilities and requiring skin grafts.

HSE’s investigation found that adequate checks to ensure that the electricity on the site had been disconnected had not been made.

Gould Singleton Architects Ltd (GSA), of Whitehall Road, Halesowen, had told DSM Demolition Ltd, of Arden Road, Birmingham that all services to the site had been terminated when actually the power supply remained live. DSM should have ensured that the electrical services had been disconnected before starting demolition, but failed to do so.

At Worcester Crown Court, DSM was found guilty of breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act. The company was today fined £40,000 and ordered to pay £100,000 costs. GSA pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and Regulation 15(3)(e) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 1994. The company was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay £20,872 costs.

Full details on HSE website

Legal Notes:

Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 states: “It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees.”
Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 states: “It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety.”
Regulation 15(3)(e) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 1994 states: “The information required to be contained in the health and safety plan is such information as the planning supervisor knows or could ascertain by making reasonable enquiries and which it is reasonable for the planning supervisor to expect the principal contractor to need in order for him to comply with the requirement imposed on him to ensure the health and safety of all persons carrying out the construction work.”

£100,000 fine for worker’s death

macbrac-admin — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:18:27 +0000

A worker at Montracon Ltd’s factory in Market Weighton, East Yorkshire, died from serious head injuries when a machine weighing two-thirds of a tonne fell on him.

It fell after being dislodged from its mountings by a passing trailer; a number of similar near-miss incidents in the weeks leading up to the incident had gone unreported. HSE inspection also revealed that Montracon had failed to carry out a risk assessment for workplace transport.

Montracon appeared at Hull Crown Court on 27 February and pleaded guilty to breaching s2(1) of the HSWA 1974, and reg. 3(1) of the MHSWR 1999. It was fined a total of £100,000 and ordered to pay £30,033 in costs.

For full details see http://www.shponline.co.uk/incourt-content/full/trailer-manufacturer-fined-100-000-for-driver-s-death

Legal notes

Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 states that “It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his/her employees”
Reg. 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 states “Every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of (a) the risks to the health and safety of his employees to which they are exposed whilst they are at work”

Redditch asbestos exposure – fines and costs over £115,000

macbrac-admin — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 10:42:26 +0000

Avon Freight Group Ltd’s architect had commissioned a survey identifying asbestos insulation board in a number of partition walls, which the company wanted to demolish, and obtained estimates for its removal from three licensed contractors. However, AFG’s MD Simon Poole instructed builder Ronald MacPhee to carry out the removal work even though he did not have a licence. McPhee and his workers removed 1.5 tonnes of asbestos insulation board from the site, disposing of it as asbestos cement (which can be removed without a licence) some time between 24 April and 16 May 2008.

Several months later, pieces of asbestos insulation board were discovered on the floor and still attached to retaining screws on the walls. HSE analysis of the area revealed asbestos contamination which had to be removed by a specialist licensed asbestos contractor. At least 20 people – including contract workers on the project, employees of AFG and workers for a tenant who had been using the site for storage, could have inhaled asbestos fibres.

On 22 February 2012, at Worcester Crown Court, Avon Freight Group Ltd, Simon Poole and Ronald MacPhee pleaded guilty today to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. AFG and Poole were each fined £30,000 plus £26,147 costs, and McPhee was fined £2,500 plus £500 costs.

Macbrac Business Safety offers training in Asbestos Awareness. Contact us for more details.

Legal notes

Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 states: “It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety.”
Further updates on working with asbestos can be found at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/index.htm

Forty-two fatalities in farming

macbrac-admin — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:27:06 +0000

The Health and Safety Executive’s report ‘Fatal injuries in farming, forestry, horticulture and associated industries 2010/11‘ show that 42 people were killed as a result of farming and other agriculture-related activities during the year, of whom 15 (37%) were the result of overturning vehicles or being struck by moving vehicles.

Misuse of block grab kills worker

macbrac-admin — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:12:31 +0000

23-year-old Steven Allen was killed when workers tried to use a block grab to move cement bags, which were stacked on a pallet at a Manningham, Bradford, construction site. While moving the load, the bags fell but the pallet remained in the jaws of the grab. When Mr Allen pulled it free the grab’s jaws dropped and clamped around his head, causing massive crush injuries. He died in hospital the next day.

HSE investigation found that the grab was being used against the manufacturer’s instructions and it was not suitable for the job.

Pressure group Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK) said “None of the very basic, reasonably practicable measures were in place, and Steven’s death would have been prevented if a block grab was not being used for a purpose the manual prohibited.

Mr Allen’s employer JN Bentley Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching s2(1) of the HSWA 1974. It was fined £106,250 and ordered to pay £90,000 in costs.

Legal note:

Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 requires an employer “to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees”

Macbrac Business Safety can train employees in Health and Safety and Risk Assessment, including the NEBOSH General Certificate and IOSH “Managing Safely”. Courses are available in Telford, Shropshire and in Central London. Contact us for more details.