Employers warned over equipment maintenance
June 3, 2008
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has is warning bosses to make sure equipment is maintained to the highest possible standard after a company was prosecuted for failing to do so.
Martyn Simm, a 45-year-old lorry driver for Berser International Cargo Services, was crushed to death after a sliding metal gate weighing 0.4 tonnes fell onto him as he was closing it on the firm's site in Chesterton.
The HSE pursued a prosecution against the company and it pleaded guilty to a charge of breaching Regulation 5(1) of the Workplace Health, Safety and Welfare Regulations 1992.
Yesterday Berser was ordered to pay a total of £40,000 in fines and costs at Stafford crown court.
Rachel Bradshaw, the HSE's inspector, believes the maintenance of equipment on work sites could be the difference between life and death and urged employers not to shirk their responsibilities.
"Basic maintenance of equipment is often ignored by employers and lives are put at risk as a result. There was a very obvious defect on this gate that a simple visual check would have identified," she said.
Regulation 5(1) requires that bosses maintain the workplace and make sure equipment in it is in an efficient state.
Martyn Simm, a 45-year-old lorry driver for Berser International Cargo Services, was crushed to death after a sliding metal gate weighing 0.4 tonnes fell onto him as he was closing it on the firm's site in Chesterton.
The HSE pursued a prosecution against the company and it pleaded guilty to a charge of breaching Regulation 5(1) of the Workplace Health, Safety and Welfare Regulations 1992.
Yesterday Berser was ordered to pay a total of £40,000 in fines and costs at Stafford crown court.
Rachel Bradshaw, the HSE's inspector, believes the maintenance of equipment on work sites could be the difference between life and death and urged employers not to shirk their responsibilities.
"Basic maintenance of equipment is often ignored by employers and lives are put at risk as a result. There was a very obvious defect on this gate that a simple visual check would have identified," she said.
Regulation 5(1) requires that bosses maintain the workplace and make sure equipment in it is in an efficient state.
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