Scaffolder fined for Dangerous Work at Height
Carefree scaffolders put themselves and passers-by in danger as they worked unsafely at height above a busy Covent Garden street, a court has heard. Clerkenwell-based JOS Scaffolding Limited was prosecuted on 4 June on the strength of the photographic evidence and a subsequent HSE investigation into safety failings.
A nearby member of the public was so concerned about an imminent fall in Tavistock Street on 20 June 2013 they captured the work on camera and sent the images to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
Westminster Magistrates Court heard the firm was responsible for erecting a five-storey scaffold that was some ten metres above street level once complete.
The unsafe work was during the initial construction phase as the structure took shape. Pictures showed workers using unsecure and precariously balanced boards to access and pass materials to higher levels. They also showed a worker sitting near the top of the structure casually dangling his legs over the side.
Magistrates were told there was nothing in place at this point of the work to prevent or mitigate a fall of persons or equipment or materials. This in turn put anyone walking underneath or alongside the scaffold at risk.
HSE established the work was poorly planned and managed, and that two of the three-man team erecting the scaffold were lacking training and accreditation to prove their competence. The work fell well below the legally required standard – although both HSE and the court acknowledged that efforts had been made to improve standards once the failings were brought to the company’s attention.
Related Legislation
Fines were issued concerning two breaches of the Work at Height Regulations 2005:
- Regulation 6(3), which requires that 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.
- Regulation 10(1) , which requires that every employer shall, where necessary to prevent injury to any person, take suitable and sufficient steps to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, the fall of any material or object.
Blackburn Packaging Firm prosecuted after an Injury leads to an HSE Investigation
A Blackburn packaging firm has appeared in court after an investigation into a worker’s injury revealed safety standards described as ‘appalling’.
Europlast (Blackburn) Ltd was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after an employee had part of a finger amputated after his left hand became trapped in unguarded machinery in June 2012.
HSE discovered that two other workers had been injured in similar machinery incidents less than nine months earlier, numerous safety guards were missing or disabled on machines, and workers had not been given suitable training.
Preston Crown Court heard that the 26-year-old employee from Blackburn, who has asked not to be named, had been working on a machine used to produce bubble wrap when the incident happened at the plant at Shadsworth Business Park on 6 June 2012.
The worker was trying to remove small pieces of plastic which had become stuck when his hand was pulled in between two rollers. It remained trapped for several minutes before another employee eventually found the emergency stop button. He suffered burns and crush injuries to his hand, required skin grafts and had to have the top half of his middle finger amputated. The court was told two other workers had also suffered injuries when their hands became trapped in machinery in April 2012 and September 2011.
HSE first made Europlast aware of the need to guard dangerous machine parts during a visit to the site in September 2009. This warning was repeated in July 2011 when an external health and safety consultant highlighted ‘intolerable risks’ from missing guards on machines at the factory.
The consultant stressed the importance of implementing his findings when he returned to the site later in the year, after it became clear that no action had been taken.
Europlast (Blackburn) Ltd, of Duttons Way in Blackburn, was fined £50,010 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £23,102 after admitting breaches of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
Related Legislation
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