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May/June 2023 issue

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Safe systems of work
Construction
News

Construction cos fined £700k after four killed at excavation site

Open-access content Tuesday 30th May 2017
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

The Old Bailey was told that Claxton Engineering Services, an engineering and service company that operates in the oil and gas industry, hired Encompass Project Management to construct a large pressure test facility (PTF) at its headquarters in Great Yarmouth for the high-pressure testing of pipes.

Encompass contracted Hazegood Construction to complete the groundworks and build the steel reinforcing cage.

On 21 January 2011, as Peter Johnson, Adam Taylor and brothers Thomas and Daniel Hazelton were building the reinforcement structure, it collapsed on them. Despite a large-scale emergency response to try and rescue the trapped men, they were pronounced dead at the scene.

The excavation for the PTF was more than 23 m long, 3 m wide and 2 m deep. The horizontal steel cage would have weighed around 32 tonnes when completed.

The Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) investigation found that Claxton, Encompass and Encompass's director David Groucott had failed to plan, manage and monitor the project.

Claxton Engineering Services pleaded guilty to breaching reg 9(1)(a) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007, for failing its duty as client to ensure construction work could be completed without risk to peoples' safety. It was fined £500,000 and ordered to pay costs of £100,000.

In a statement, the company said: "Claxton Engineering Services has accepted that it breached [reg 9(1)(a) of the CDM Regulations] as client in a construction project at Bureside House in 2011. The company accepts the sentence that was imposed by the court on 25 May 2017.

"We continue to feel the deepest sympathy for the families who lost their loved ones."

Encompass Project Management pleaded guilty to breaching s 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act. It was fined £200,000 and ordered to pay costs of £50,000.

Groucott pleaded guilty to breaching s 37(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act. He was sentenced to a seven and a half month custodial sentence, suspended for two years. He was ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid community work within 12 months, and also ordered to pay costs of £7,500.

Charges against Hazegood Construction were ordered to lie on file.

Head of operations at the HSE's construction division, Annette Hall, said: "Those sentenced today failed the four workers who died. They didn't carry out their legal duties, leading to the events which caused their deaths.

"This was a long-term, large-scale and complex civil engineering project which needed to be planned, designed, managed and monitored effectively. The tragedy here is that, in the months leading up to the accident, any one of these parties could and should have asked basic questions about building the structure safely. Such an intervention could have avoided the tragic outcome of this entirely preventable accident."

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Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court | Image credit: ©iStock/alanfin

 Housebuilder fined after vulnerable pensioner drowned

Friday 2nd June 2017
Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court was told that on 7 January 2015 John Philbin had gained access to the Chapel Level residential development, for which Sandford Park was the principal contractor, through a gap in a hedge.Philbin, who had the onset of dementia, fell into the excavation, which had flooded with rainwater, and drowned. The site had been closed at the time due to bad weather. A ground worker found his body the next day.
Open-access content
The Court of Appeal sat at the Royal Courts of Justice in Belfast | Image credit: ©FrankRamspott

 NI Court of Appeal boosts builder’s jail sentence as deterrent

Thursday 25th May 2017
The court replaced Norman McKenzie’s suspended sentence with a custodial one which, it said, would act as a warning to the construction industry that offenders of gross negligence who put workers’ lives at risk would be sent to prison. Portadown farm owner Ivan Reilly had contracted McKenzie to assist with the construction of a three-bay farm shed at his premises.
Open-access content
The railings on the balcony gave way while the sofa (pictured, wrapped in plastic) was being manoeuvred into the first-floor apartment | Image credit: ©Ben Cawthra/REX/Shutterstock

 Construction firm guilty of corporate manslaughter over fatal London balcony falls

Wednesday 24th May 2017
Martinisation London was found guilty last week (19 May) at the Old Bailey. The court heard that Polish nationals Tomasz Procko, 22, and Kyrol Szymanski, 29, were part of a team of construction workers that was renovating the flat in Cadogan Square, Belgravia. On 21 November 2014, five workmen used a rope to lift the 114.3 kg sofa up from the pavement and over a balustrade into the first-floor dwelling because it was too large to be carried up the stairs.
Open-access content

 Suspended sentence for contractor over botched demolition job

Thursday 8th June 2017
Canterbury Crown Court was told that the building on High Street in Ramsgate was owned by Panther AL (PAL), a subsidiary of property investment company Panther Securities. PAL contracted Martin Elmes to undertake the demolition work but did not confirm that he was suitable and competent to complete the task.
Open-access content
Lewes Crown Court. Image credit: © REX/Shutterstock

 Millionaire businessman and foreman convicted for manslaughter over fatal fall

Wednesday 14th June 2017
The incident, which took place in September 2014, occurred only a year after a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspection identified poor work at height standards at the same site, and work was stopped until improvements were made. The HSE had found numerous openings in the first floor, through which anyone working in the building could have fallen several metres. Training for site workers was also found to be inadequate.
Open-access content
The JCB drove through the wall | Image credit: HSE

 *UPDATE* ‘Man of straw’ lands suspended sentence for botched demolition

Friday 16th June 2017
The building on High Street in Ramsgate was owned by Panther VAT (PAL), a subsidiary of property investment company Panther Securities. It was an old textile printing factory with a historic frontage, but PAL had planned to convert it into 20 flats and had contracted sole trader Martin Elmes to undertake the demolition work.
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