http://www.safetymedia.co.uk/news/ Health & Safety news direct to your desktop. en-us Tue, 10 Jun 2003 04:00:00 GMT Tue, 10 Jun 2003 09:41:01 GMT sales@safetymedia.co.uk sales@safetymedia.co.uk
In June 2008, employee Steven Glass was working on an Endoline tape packaging machine which had been under repair. When it would not work, he attempted to fix it. As the machine could not be properly isolated to prevent accidental operation, it started, trapping three of his fingers, which were amputated. Later at hospital, one finger was successfully reattached. Mr Glass no longer works for the company.

Since the accident to Mr Glass, the company has been taken over, and there have been significant improvements in health and safety.

At Ayr Sheriff Court on 2 July, 2009, Belcher Food products Ltd, Glenburn Road, Prestwick, was fined £30,000 after pleading guilty to breaching Sections 2(1); 2 (2) and 33 (1) (a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has warned companies about the importance of ensuring machinery is capable of being isolated to prevent operation, and of ensuring employees are given adequate training instruction and supervision.

The court heard that a year before the accident, the company commissioned an electrical inspection of their premises which identified 866 faults with the electrics and wiring system, of which nearly 200 were rated as most urgent. By the time of the accident, little or no work had been done to rectify these faults.

Three months before the accident, HSE inspectors had visited the plant and told the company they must have a procedure in place to ensure machinery could be properly isolated while being repaired. This had not been carried out at the time of the accident.


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Companies are being reminded that, even if no work is taking place, regular checks should be carried out to make sure people are not able to get onto sites and they are in a safe condition.

Jeanette Reuben, HSE Head of Operations for Construction in Scotland, said:
We want children to enjoy playing outside during the summer holidays but it’s vital they stay safe. Construction sites often appeal to young people as they look like giant adventure playgrounds, but they can be extremely dangerous. The recession has led to some sites shutting down in Scotland, which means there aren’t workers on duty to make sure children stay away. There should be good security fencing around construction sites, but children can often find their way onto them if they try hard enough.

Scaffolding, excavations, fragile surfaces, electricity cables and stacked up building materials are all potential dangers on building sites. We’re asking companies to ensure building sites are properly secured to make it harder for members of the public to get onto them.

The construction sector is one of the most dangerous industries in the UK, with 11 deaths and 1,597 serious injuries in Scotland in 2007/8. In the past two years, there have been nearly 60 serious injuries to children on UK construction sites, including one death.

HSE is advising construction managers to stop work immediately if they see children trying to get onto a site. They should also make sure equipment and materials are locked away safely at the end of each day.


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The warning follows the prosecution of two companies in relation to the incident at the Davyhulme Waste Water Treatment Works, Rivers Lane, Trafford, Greater Manchester, on 18 September 2003. MB Plastics Ltd and Birse Integrated Solutions Ltd were sentenced at Manchester Crown Court on Minshull Street on Tuesday 30 June 2009.

The deceased man’s employer, MB Plastics Ltd of Forward Works, Woolston, Warrington, pleaded guilty to an offence under health and safety legislation. The company was fined £150,000 and ordered to pay costs of £24,323.

The principal contractor for the project, Birse Water Ltd, which is now trading as Birse Integrated Solutions Ltd of Alexander House, Station Road, Cheadle Hulme, also pleaded guilty. It was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay costs of £41,073.

The court heard the vehicle’s off-side cab window normally acted as a guard, but had been damaged during a lifting operation five weeks before the fatality. At the time of the incident, the cab window was entirely missing.

Judge Peter Lakin said, although there were no witnesses to the incident, the most likely explanation is that the deceased man leant out of the cab window and came into contact with the joystick, bringing the arm of the forklift truck down onto him.

MB Plastics Ltd was charged with failing to ensure the safety of employees, under Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, while involved in operating and working with, or in the vicinity of, a telescopic forklift truck.

Birse was charged with failing to ensure the safety of people not in its employment, under Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The court found that Birse had failed to ensure that MB Plastics Ltd prepared suitable and sufficient risk assessments in relation to its telescopic forklift truck operations. It also found that Birse had failed to adequately monitor MB Plastics Ltd and, as a result, had failed to identify the broken window and ensure it was replaced.


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The men were overcome by hydrogen sulphide in July 2007, as they delivered animal waste from the neighbouring abattoir to a waste pit in preparation for incineration. They collapsed and lay unconscious in the waste intake area of the plant before being rescued and taken to hospital. One was kept in the intensive care unit overnight.

At Forfar Sheriff Court today, Sacone Environmental Ltd of Brechin was fined £12,000 after pleading guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

The court heard that the waste intake area had no gas monitors or alarms installed and its enclosed nature meant there was little exchange of air, effectively making it a confined space. To reduce emissions from the rendering processes, the plant is enclosed by the fabric of the building. Access to, and exit from the building was controlled by two sets of doors, only one of which can be opened at a time, to prevent the escape of gases and odours. Waste is tipped into a pit and may remain there for hours or days before being processed and incinerated.

Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Investigating Inspector John Radcliffe is now warning companies about the risk to their employees working in confined spaces:
"This accident was entirely foreseeable and preventable. It was foreseeable that hydrogen sulphide could accumulate in this plant; and there are reasonably practicable controls available to reduce the risks for exposure to the gas in that area."


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The advice comes after Dairy Farmers of Britain Ltd, of London Road, Nantwich, Cheshire, was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £2,916 costs at Lincoln Magistrates' Court today after pleading guilty to breaching Regulation 12 (1) and Regulation 17 (1) of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992.

On June 18, 2008 at the Boultham Park Dairy, Boultham Park Road, Lincoln, a ride-on pallet truck and a forklift truck collided on site between the main fridge and the production areas, injuring the ride-on pallet truck driver.

The injured man, Mr John Reader, who suffered multiple fractures to his lower right leg, was taken immediately to Lincoln County Hospital where he received treatment for his injuries.

Following the investigation it was identified that the traffic routes were not organised in such a way that pedestrians and vehicles could circulate in a safe manner.
Although not a contributory factor to the incident, it was also identified that the floor surfaces on the traffic routes were unsuitable.  There were several areas of damage and the floor was almost constantly wet, making it slippery for both vehicles and pedestrians.


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In 2008/09 five fatal injuries were reported in Wales compared with 18 in the previous year. Over the past five years there has been, on average, 16 deaths as a result of workplace accidents in Wales.

The number of people killed at work in Britain has also fallen to a record low with 180 workers killed in 2008/09 – down 17 per cent on the previous lowest total of 217, which was recorded in 2005/6.

The region's top health and safety official, Terry Rose, HSE Director for Wales, said that the reduction in fatalities reflects an improved level of health and safety practice in Wales, but that businesses need to continue to put safety first particularly in the current economic climate. 

“The fact that five people failed to come home from work in Wales last year because of avoidable safety failings is a terrible tragedy. There are families throughout the region who have been cruelly robbed of a loved one in incidents that in many cases were entirely preventable. We owe it to them and to the workers who have lost their lives to continue to put safety first.  This is all the more important given the economic problems facing Wales. We know from evidence of past downturns that when the period of economic recovery comes it generally sees an increase in the rate and number of workers losing their lives.  I don't want to be talking in 12 months time about a tragic rise in the number of our workers who have been killed simply doing their job.” 

The provisional figure for the number of workers fatally injured across Great Britain in 2008/09 is 180 − the lowest level of workplace fatalities on record. This corresponds to a fatal injury rate of 0.6 per 100,000 workers − a fall of 25 per cent on the previous year.

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The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Crest Engineering Company Ltd after finding safety guards missing or not in use on several 'milling' machines, which are used to shape metal.

The company had previously been ordered to replace the guards on the machines at its factory, at Throstle Bank Works on Dukinfield Road in Hyde, but they were later removed or unlocked.

Crest Engineering, which is based in Stalybridge, pleaded guilty to two health and safety offences at Trafford Magistrates Court on Tuesday 23 June. It was fined £13,000 and ordered to pay costs of £3,003.

The company was prosecuted for breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 by failing to ensure the safety of its employees. It was also charged with breaching Regulation 11(3) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 by failing to make sure the machine guards were well maintained, in an efficient working order and in good repair.

The HSE first served Crest Engineering with an Enforcement Notice in 1999 for failing to have a safety switch on a piece of machinery. When inspectors visited the site again in 2001, they served eight Enforcement Notices after finding safety guards missing on several machines.

Witness statements given to the HSE revealed that, although the guards were initially provided following the visit, they were removed or put out of use within a few months. Inspectors took the decision to prosecute the company after revisiting the site in May 2007.


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The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) served T.J. & S. Jenkinson Ltd with 19 enforcement notices between September 2004 and October 2008. It took the decision to prosecute the company for persistent failings, which put employees at risk of serious harm to their health and safety.

Jenkinson, which makes cleaning products and is based on Sankey Valley Industrial Estate in Earlestown, received a maximum fine of £30,000 for three offences at St Helens Magistrates Court on Wednesday 17 June, and was ordered to pay full costs of £24,527.

The company pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 7(1) of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002, Regulation 5(1) of the Provision of Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, and Section 33(1)(g) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

The charges related to Jenkinson failing to adequately control the exposure of an employee to hazardous substances in its powder plant room, failing to maintain a Hyster forklift truck which had a history of steering problems, and failing to comply with an Improvement Notice requiring training to be given to employees exposed to hazardous substances.

The HSE issues enforcement notices when it finds serious breaches of health and safety regulations. There are two types of notices – improvement and prohibition. Improvement Notices require changes to be made by a particular date, and Prohibition Notices stop work from taking place until specific improvements have been made.

Jenkinson's early guilty plea was taken into consideration by the court and the case was not sent to Crown Court for sentencing, where the company could have received an unlimited fine.


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Snowflake Animal Bedding Ltd, which is based in Ashton-under-Lyne, but has a manufacturing plant in Boston, Lincolnshire, was fined £13,300 and ordered to pay full costs of £8,655.16p at Boston Magistrates’ Court today, Monday 22 June, after pleading guilty to breaching section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

The company was also fined £3,400 after admitting breaching Regulation 9 (1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 for failing to ensure employees had adequate training for driving fork lift trucks.

On 23 January 2007, an employee – a migrant worker from Poland who had been in the country for just over six months at the time of the incident - was working at the company’s manufacturing plant at Marsh Lane on the Riverside Industrial Estate in Boston.

He was standing on a conveyor belt which fed hay bales into the shredder, cutting strings that were holding bales together. As the bale fell apart, the man lost his balance and fell into the shredder.
During the HSE’s investigation, it also came to light that the company was not giving staff adequate forklift truck driver training.

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Find out more about Multi-Lingual training


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The sentencing follows the prosecution in March 2009 of both Eurolift (Tower Cranes) Ltd and WD Bennetts Plant and Services Ltd for their part in an incident that led to the death of two workers and injured a third in February 2005.

WD Bennetts Plant & Services Ltd was found guilty of breaching section 3 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and regulation 8(3) of the Construction (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1996. Eurolift (Tower Cranes) Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and Regulation 8(3) of the Construction (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1996.

After the conviction in March, WD Bennetts Plant and Services Ltd was put into administration. On 7 May 2009, the company’s name was changed to ‘WDB1’. Eurolift (Tower Cranes) Ltd still exists but is no longer trading.

In court today, speaking about Eurolift (Tower Cranes) Ltd, the judge William Wood, stated his belief that the breach was serious enough to attract a fine in the region of £100,000 to £200,000. However taking into account the current financial state of the company he imposed a fine of £50,000 and ordered them to pay costs of £1,000.

The prosecution followed an incident on a construction site at a school in Durrington, Worthing, on 11 February 2005. The deceased men, Steve Boatman and Gary Miles, had been working on the jib of a crane. A third man, who was injured in the incident, was working on the mast of the crane. He was instructed to start de-torquing the mast bolts of the crane. He should have slacked off the bolts one-by-one, and then re-tightened each bolt in turn, but he was not trained in this job and he failed to re-tighten the bolts leaving them part un-done. This caused the crane to collapse as it was turned.

Mr Boatman and Mr Miles were flung from the crane and died from injuries sustained in the fall. The third victim suffered several broken bones and lacerations.
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Find out more about Risk Assessment


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