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March/April 2023 issue

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News

Demolition firm’s director used wrong plant to lift girders

Open-access content Thursday 26th October 2017
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

On 19 October 2015 Samuel Evans, managing director of S. Evans and Sons, was lifting steel girders using a rotator shear attached to an excavator -- plant typically used to cut up materials during demolition, Liverpool Crown Court was told.

Employee David Whitfield, 63, was assisting Evans with the job. He walked underneath a suspended girder to position some wooden blocks well it fell on him.

Whitfield's left arm had to be amputated below the elbow, along with his right hand. He spent two and a half months in hospital and will require care for the rest of his life.

After its investigation, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said Evans was personally responsible for the wrong equipment used during the task, and the way in which it had been carried out.

S. Evans and Sons, which has worked on high profile projects such as the Mersey Gateway, pleaded guilty to breaching s 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act and reg 4(3) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations. It must pay £9,523 costs.

Samuel Evans pleaded guilty to breaching two counts of s 37 of the Health and Safety at Work Act. He was sentenced to a ten-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work.

HSE inspector Rohan Lye said: "If the company and its director had taken basic steps to decide how to do this routine task, and what control measures to use, they could have prevented this devastating incident resulting in an employee suffering life-changing injuries."

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 Litter picker struck by plant loses both legs

Tuesday 24th October 2017
James Hurst, a litter picker for Jack Moody Recycling, was collecting rubbish at the company’s composting site in Redhill, Telford, on 5 December 2014. He was standing next to a brick wall when the driver of a shovel loader drove over him, Shrewsbury Crown Court was told.The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said the driver was unaware he had struck someone and just thought he had hit the brick wall. He climbed down from the cab to inspect the damage and found Hurst badly injured on the floor.
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 Howdens lands £1.2m fine for overloaded forklift fatality

Thursday 23rd November 2017
Howdens Joinery was prosecuted at Carlisle Crown Court after it pleaded guilty to breaching ss 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act. It must also pay costs of almost £34,000. The court was told that Richard Brown had been delivering kitchen worktops to the company’s premises at Clay Flatts industrial estate in Workington when the accident happened in November 2014.A forklift truck was being used to unload two pallets from the heavy goods vehicle when it overbalanced. It fell on Brown and he died at the scene.
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 Graham Parker, Mapeley Estates

Wednesday 18th October 2017
In the past 12 months Graham Parker has often found himself working into the early hours. His work as head of health and safety at one of the UK’s biggest property companies has been overlaid with duties representing his professional institution as its president.
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Thursday 16th November 2017
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 Stevenson-Farmer review urges stronger HSE action on mental health

Thursday 26th October 2017
The report has made 40 recommendations for businesses, regulators, the government and the public sector after it found one worker in six suffers from a mental illness and 300,000 people with long-term mental health problems lose their jobs every year.
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 Fined construction cos exposed residents to carbon monoxide

Monday 23rd October 2017
Principal contractor Wates, part of Wates Group – one of the largest family-owned construction, property services and development companies in the UK – had subcontracted RJ Fitters to remove flue cowls on redundant flue pipes before blocking them off. Cambridge Crown Court was told that operatives had been given a diagram marked with the redundant flues and were expected to find them among the live ones. They made a mistake regarding the correct floor level and blocked a live flue on 19 December 2014.
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  Morrisons’ £3.5m fine is ‘a warning to all employers’, says council

Friday 24th March 2023
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 IOSH launches new five-year strategy

Tuesday 21st March 2023
IOSH launches its new five-year strategy this spring. It will build and act on the reshaped purpose and ambition gained during WORK 2022, which ran from 2017 to 2022.
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 Risk & Compliance software provider collaborates with HSE and Costain to improve risk management on worksites

Friday 17th March 2023
A Belfast-based Risk & Compliance software provider has been collaborating with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and construction giant Costain as part of an ongoing project to unlock artificial intelligence’s (AI) potential in improving the management of risks on worksites.
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Friday 17th March 2023
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 Musculoskeletal disorders in construction

Thursday 2nd March 2023
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 Principal contractor handed £146k fine for fatal excavator crush goes into liquidation

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 Life-changing one tonne load fall results in £95,000 fine

Monday 13th March 2023
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 Siemens to pay £1.4m for train technician’s fatal crush

Tuesday 7th March 2023
Siemens Plc has pleaded guilty to breaching s 33(1)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work Act after a self-employed contractor died at its Train Care Facility in west London.
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 Logistics giant Eddie Stobart’s £133k fine for exposing port staff to asbestos

Friday 2nd December 2022
Eddie Stobart has been fined £133,000 for a number of failures that resulted in staff at its rail and container freight port in Widnes, Cheshire being exposed to asbestos.
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 Penalties mount for vehicle parts maker on OSHA’s ‘severe violator enforcement programme’

Wednesday 10th August 2022
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 Dyson lands £1.2m fine after worker escapes more serious injuries

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Dyson Technologies has been handed a £1.2 million fine after a worker at its Wiltshire site narrowly escaped being crushed by a 1.5 tonne milling machine.
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  Inadequate supervision on night shift led to fatality at dock

Friday 2nd September 2022
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 ‘Lift shaft’ fall lands landlord with 12 months in prison

Tuesday 23rd August 2022
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 Waste firm guilty of corporate manslaughter after worker was struck and killed by a reversing wheeled loader vehicle

Tuesday 28th February 2023
A waste firm and its director have been found guilty over the death of a worker who was run over by a reversing lorry.
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 Principal contractor handed £146k fine for fatal excavator crush goes into liquidation

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