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Practice meets perfect
May/June 2023 issue

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Contractor pays £566,670 for line strike with no injury

Open-access content Wednesday 30th May 2018
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

Contractor pays £566,670 for line strike with no injury

The driver was employed by Mick George, a company that supplies earth moving, demolition, skip hire and waste management services to the construction industry. On 9 March 2016 he was emptying a load of soil from the tipper at a construction site in Northampton. He drove forward with the dump bed still raised and touched -- or almost touched -- the 33kV overhead power lines.

Northampton Crown Court was told Mick George had identified the need for overhead cable goalposts that provide a visible proximity warning of nearby overhead cables on construction sites. However, a delay in the work starting meant it had only installed one.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said Mick George should have carried out a "more rigorous" risk assessment. Its system of work was inadequate to reduce the risk of tipper trucks striking overhead power lines, it found.

Mick George pleaded guilty to breaching reg 25(3) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, which cover the provision of suitable warning notices where there is a risk to construction work from overhead electric power cables.

The company was fined and ordered to pay costs of £9,000.

After the hearing HSE inspector said: "Every year in the UK, two people are killed and many more are injured when mechanical plant and machinery comes into contact or close proximity to overhead power lines. This was a very serious incident and it is fortunate nobody was injured as a result.

"A suitable and sufficient assessment would have identified the need to contact the distribution network operator, Western Power, to request the overhead power lines were diverted underground prior to the commencement of construction. If this was not reasonably practicable, Mick George should have erected goalposts either side of the overhead power lines to warn drivers."

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Image credit: ©iStock/tcareob72

 PUWER offence sees civils firm fined after worker hit by badly maintained road roller

Wednesday 6th June 2018
Newlay Civil Engineering employee Thomas Shaw was injured in November 2015 when a colleague reversed the vehicle over his leg during road resurfacing work in Straiton, South Ayrshire. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the road roller had no flashing beacon and the reversing alarm was not working. In December 2015 it served an improvement notice, which the company complied with the next month.
Open-access content

 Dumper tipped from spoil heap on to driver

Wednesday 9th May 2018
Tonic Construction employee Shaun Carter, 29, was driving his forward-tipping dumper to the top of the mound of waste soil, stone and rock when it became stuck on the edge. As Carter jumped out of the vehicle, it overturned and struck him on the head. He died at the scene from severe head injuries. According to a report by the Gazette and Herald, Carter was part of a team putting in roads, drainage and foundations on a David Wilson Homes construction site in Cirencester, Gloucester, when the accident happened in May 2016.
Open-access content

 PC guilty of multiple failings at care home build

Wednesday 30th May 2018
Coast & Country Construction and Paul Humphries Architects have been fined a total of £170,000. Exeter Magistrates’ Court was told that in 2016 a concern was raised about dangerous work practices at Manor Lodge Residential Home in Exmouth, Devon, where a large timber frame extension was being built.Inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) visited the site on 1 March that year and found workers were at risk of falls from height, slips and trips and wood dust exposure.
Open-access content
Image credit: ©MoustacheGirl

 Effective return to work programmes after cancer are ‘essential’, says EU-OSHA

Friday 1st June 2018
The report is based on a recent study commissioned by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) that examined the issues faced by workers affected by cancer. Researchers said optimising the rehabilitation and return of those affected by cancer would improve their wellbeing and reduce the financial impacts of the disease on European businesses. They have recommended the development of new legislation that obliges all employers to offer return-to-work programmes for their employees.
Open-access content
Image credit: ©iStock/j4m3z

 Untrained asbestos surveyor missed chrysotile and amosite

Wednesday 6th June 2018
Dudley Magistrates’ Court was told that Home Inspectors Southern, which carried out the survey, had failed to identify asbestos cement and insulating board containing chrysotile (white) and amosite (brown) asbestos. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the worker who carried out the survey had no training in asbestos surveying or previous experience with a qualified person or accredited organisation.
Open-access content
HSE

 Solar panel installer sustained spinal fracture in 5 m scaffold fall

Thursday 7th June 2018
Jhanade Ryan was installing solar panels on the roof of roofing and cladding sheeting manufacturer Firth Steels, when he slipped on the fragile surface in Brighouse, West Yorkshire, in December 2015. The subcontracted roofer, who was working for solar power firm Centreco (UK), slid down to the edge protection and fell 5 m through scaffolding when the toe board snapped. He landed on a sub-station roof and sustained a spinal fracture, a broken coccyx and nerve damage. Ryan spent almost three months in hospital but has been left unable to work by impaired mobility.
Open-access content
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Sector: Energy
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