Neals Notes January 2005
COMPANIES FINED £87,000
Two companies, Krypton Health Construction Ltd (KHCL) and Controlled Flame Boilers Ltd (CFBL), have been fined a total of £87,000 in the Central Criminal Court, London. The prosecution, brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), followed its investigation into the death of pipe fitting engineer Mr. Robert Burchett. On 10 April 2002 Mr. Burchett, aged 40, sustained fatal injuries following a fall of 9 metres from an unprotected edge on a site where an operating theatre was being built at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore.
HSE had alleged that both companies had failed in their duty of care towards Mr. Burchett by exposing him to risks to his safety. KHCL and CFBL each pleaded guilty to a charge of breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSW Act) at an earlier hearing at City of London Magistrates on 6 September 2004. CFBL had at the same time also pleaded guilty to breaching regulation 6 of the Construction (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1996 (CHSWR) that relates to preventing persons from falling. Inspector Giles Meredith, from HSE's Construction Division who investigated the fatality said: " My investigation into the circumstances of Mr. Burchett's death revealed serious failures by both companies in respect of their duties under health and safety law. A fairly standard construction site activity of lifting a boiler into place was neither properly planned nor supervised. The method statement that was produced came nowhere near to adequately addressing the risks involved. There was nothing in place to prevent Mr. Burchett falling from the building in question. The risks of working at height and lifting are both well understood and well known in the construction industry and yet still more workers die in this manner than from any other construction activity. If we are to reverse this then the industry must wake up and do more at every level."
KHCL of Twyford Business Park, Bishop's Stortford, Essex was fined £35,000 for breaching Section 3(1) of the HSW Act and ordered to pay costs to HSE of £5,000. CFBL was fined £26,000 for breaching Section 3(1) of the HSW Act, and £26,000 for breaching CHSWR. CFBL was ordered to pay costs to HSE of £8,000.
Section 3 (1) of HSWA 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 and safety. "
2. Regulation 6 of the CHSWR states: " Suitable and sufficient steps shall be taken to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, any person falling. Te steps referred to include the provision of-(a) any guard-rail, toe-board, barrier or other similar means of protection: or (b) any working platform "
3. The maximum penalty that can be imposed at a Crown Court for both a single breach of Section 3(1) of the HSW Act and a single breach of a CHSWR regulation is unlimited.
4. In 2003/4, 70 workers in construction died; 38 of these fatalities were caused by falling from height. There were 1107 major injuries as a result from falling from height in 2003/04, accounting for 28% of all major injuries to employees.
5. Information about the work of HSE's Construction Division can be found on the HSE website at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/index.htm
WESSEX TRAINS FINED £10,000 FOLLOWING INJURY TO FITTER
Wessex Trains has been fined a total of £10,000 following a prosecution brought by the Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) Railway Inspectorate (HMRI) after an investigation into an incident where a mechanical fitter sustained severe injuries to his hand.
The incident took place at the company's Exeter depot during the evening of 9 January 2004 when Mr. Mark Whitlock was engaged in fault finding work under a Class 153 locomotive. Although the locomotive's engine had been isolated, the main starter batteries had not. Consequently a person in the locomotive's cab was able to turn the engine over by pressing an over-ride button, unintentionally trapping Mr. Whitlock's right hand in the locomotive's ribbed multi-vee auxiliary belt.
The injuries to Mr. Whitlock's right hand were severe; all four fingers were crushed and his little finger has been amputated to the first joint. Wessex Trains pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HSWA) in that it failed to take reasonably practicable precautions to ensure the safety at work of Mr Whitlock and Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (MHSWR) in that a suitable and sufficient assessment of risks to employees had not been made. The company was fined £7,500 and £2,500 for each breach respectively, and ordered to pay HSE's costs of £2,283.80. HMRI investigating inspector, Andrew Knowles said: "HSE prosecuted Wessex Trains as its procedures for carrying out routine fault finding work on a Class 153 diesel rail vehicle were not clearly established, nor were the inherent risks adequately assessed. Additionally, at the time of the incident, maintenance activities at the depot, particularly on the night shift, were inadequately supervised. This allowed systems of work to develop that were unsafe. However, since the incident Wessex Trains has done a good deal of work to address these issues including arrangements to improve supervision, and importantly, training. Unfortunately much of this will not help Mr. Whitlock, who is unlikely to do this kind of work again." The maximum penalty in the Magistrates' Court for a single offence of breaching Section 2 of HSWA is a fine of up to £20,000, and the maximum penalty for a single offence of breaching Regulation 3 of MHSWR is a fine of £5,000.
PRESSURE VESSELS WARNING AFTER CHEMICAL FIRM FINED £100,000
The HSE has warned of the need for effective operation, inspection and maintenance regimes to ensure the safe use of pressure equipment, following the prosecution of a chemical manufacturer. The warning comes after Giancarlo Coletti, 48, a worker at Clariant Life Science Molecules (UK) Limited's plant in Sandycroft, Flintshire, sustained serious injuries to his right arm in October 2003. The accident happened when the clamping system on a pressure vessel lid he was operating failed, causing the lid to fly off and hit him.
Clariant Life Science Molecules (UK) Limited was fined £100,000, split equally between Regulations 11 and 12 of the Pressure Systems Safety Regulations, with £24,474 costs, at Mold Crown Court on 17 December 2004 after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing. The company admitted failing to provide workers operating the pressure vessel with adequate and suitable instructions for its safe operation and also failing to ensure the vessel was adequately maintained.
HSE Inspector, Dr Stuart Robinson, who investigated the incident, said: "Our investigation revealed serious deficiencies in Clariant's safe systems of work. Opening and closing of the lid was regarded as a simple process, carried out three times a day, but the hazards had been overlooked. Although the clamping system was designed with a substantial margin of safety, it had been allowed to deteriorate to such an extent that the risk of injury became unacceptably high."
In particular, HSE's investigation found that Clariant had failed to put in place adequate operating procedures to ensure the system was used correctly. For example, clamps were regularly over-tightened, occasionally causing them to break and the system was allowed to operate with less than its full complement of eight clamps.
At the time of the accident, one of the clamps was missing and others showed excessive wear and tear, or inadequate repair. Furthermore, it had become common practice for leaks to be nipped up with the system under pressure because the operating procedures failed to state that the system should be de-pressurised first.
Robinson added: "The investigation also revealed that although Clariant had arranged for an independent competent person to examine the pressure system periodically, this was insufficient due to the frequent operation of the clamps, and the high level of wear and tear they showed. Instead, the firm should have introduced a more frequent system of inspection."
WHAT A GOOD IDEA! FARM SELF-ASSESSMENT SOFTWARE
A little outside our usual editorial content, but what a good idea! The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has released a free interactive software package to help farmers carry out a risk assessment of their farms and to raise the levels of health and safety awareness in the industry. The software is aimed at all farmers and farm managers who are responsible for health and safety. It provides a step-by-step route into learning about what farmers need to do to protect their health and safety and to comply with the law, without being overwhelmed.
Roger Nourish from HSE's Agriculture and Food Sector said: "HSE has produced this self-assessment software to help improve the health and safety record of an industry that has one of the worst fatal accident levels. In the ten-year period from 1994/95 to 2003/04, 489 people were killed as a result of agricultural work activities and several thousand more were injured or became ill.
"This software simplifies the process of risk assessment and is intended to help farmers apply good health and safety practices. We hope farmers will find it a useful tool to help improve awareness of health and safety and so reduce the risk of costly accidents on their farms."
Features of the self-assessment software include:
- an application which can be installed on a computer and completed off-line at leisure;
- a configuration screen that tailors the questions to those which are relevant to the farm business;
- a series of questions on key health and safety topics;
- a benchmark for each question detailing the minimum standards which should be reached to comply with legal requirements, and the reasoning behind the benchmark;
- the ability to order relevant free HSE guidance;
- a facility to add additional risks to the assessment on issues and hazards that are either not covered by the questions or which are unique to the farm;
- a facility to allow separate assessments to be produced if more than one farm or holding is managed or owned;
- printouts in the form of a prioritised list of identified actions;
- and an optional facility to submit the completed assessment to HSE
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