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March/April 2023 issue

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News

Dock operator overlooked capstan and fined £1.8m

Open-access content Friday 22nd January 2016
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

purfleet

The capstan - a revolving cylinder with a vertical axis - was powered by a motor and used for mooring ships. Its risks had already been brought to the attention of C.RO prior to the incident on 6 June 2014.

The man was working with three others to dock the vessel at Purfleet Terminal in Essex when his fingers got caught between the capstan's rotating drum and a heaving line.

His left arm was dragged in and wound around the rotating drum until a co-worker operated the emergency stop device. He sustained nerve and ligament damage as well as fractures.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said the company's failure to identify and control risk associated with powered capstans resulted in an unsafe system of work. There was also a lack of training and supervision for workers using the capstans.

The £1.8m penalty was imposed at Basildon Crown Court, Essex on 21 January after C.RO pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act. It was also ordered to pay costs of £14,328.

"This type of incident was totally foreseeable - indeed workers had already alerted their employer to risks arising from these particular capstans," HSE inspector Glyn Davies said after the hearing.

Davies added: "Capstans are difficult to guard so it is vital that all workers must be made to stand well away from the danger zone while they are in use. This can be achieved by measures including careful design of the capstans and surrounding work area, for example, to keep foot-pedals away from rotating components."

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HSE

 Wrong equipment led to solar farm shock

Thursday 21st January 2016
Following the prosecution of British Solar Renewables (BSR) and Pascon earlier this month, IOSH Magazine has been told that Ashley Coe was working on the ground for much of the installation, helping to feed cables into trenches. He later swapped roles with a colleague and controlled the excavator for the first time since work started at the site. The arm of the excavator came into (close) contact with the overhead power line soon after, shocking Coe and two other workers.
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A culvert, like the one pictured here, can be made from concrete, brick or steel and is used to transport water underground | Image credit: ©Adventure_Photo

 Construction contractors sentenced after culvert collapse

Monday 25th January 2016
Enterprise was appointed by Kent County Council to replace a damaged culvert (a structure that allows water to flow beneath roads or railways) under Tudeley Lane Tonbridge. Enterprise assigned most of the work to Topbond. Michael Skitt and two co-workers entered an area between two culverts to clear a channel for the remaining water to flow through. They started to remove loose material, but hadn’t yet started digging, when the culvert that was due to be replaced gave way.
Open-access content

 Engineer's trapping costs National Grid Gas £1m

Tuesday 26th January 2016
The gas distributor was overseeing work to fix a gas leak on Ashby Road, Scunthorpe when pressure build-up burst one of the pipelines. One worker from the team of subcontractors was trapped between two gas pipes and sustained a broken thighbone.  The fire and rescue service worked for an hour in zero visibility to free the engineer, who was wearing breathing apparatus to protect him from escaping gas and the cloud of dust and debris it created.
Open-access content

 Fatal head injury leaves Balfour Beatty with £1m fine

Wednesday 27th January 2016
Larry Newman, 37, was part of a team sent out by subsidiary firm Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering to install temporary traffic management measures and repair a barrier that had been damaged in a collision on the A2 road.  The crew deployed a lorry-mounted crane to remove a post footing that had snapped. During the work, the crane became unstable and swung backwards, hitting Newman on the head and killing him. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Open-access content

 Balfour Beatty should have waited for right plant

Friday 29th January 2016
As we reported on 27 January, a crew from Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering and workers supplied by Littlewood Fencing were deployed on 1 October 2012 to repair an Armco barrier that had been hit by a beer lorry. They were also clearing up the thousands of beer cans on the carriageway, removing debris and setting up temporary traffic management systems.
Open-access content
An example of limited cutter projection tooling | Image credit: HSE

 Kitchen co had no proper guarding on tenoning machine

Thursday 14th January 2016
The worker had two fingers on his right hand amputated following the incident on 31 October 2014. Bespoke in Oak was sentenced at Northampton Magistrates’ Court, when it was revealed there was no functioning limited cutter projection tooling on the cutting block and dangerous moving parts were exposed.
Open-access content

Latest from News

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  Morrisons’ £3.5m fine is ‘a warning to all employers’, says council

Friday 24th March 2023
Morrisons supermarket has been fined £3.5 million for failing to ensure the health and safety of an epileptic employee who died after falling from a shop stairway.
Open-access content
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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.
Open-access content
web_Cranes-on-construction-site_credit_iStock-1352083784.jpg

 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.
Open-access content

Latest from Safe systems of work

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 Penalties mount for vehicle parts maker on OSHA’s ‘severe violator enforcement programme’

Wednesday 10th August 2022
The US Department of Labor has presented an Ohio-based vehicle parts manufacturer on its ‘severe violator enforcement programme’ with a fine of $480,240 (approx. £373,000) after inspectors found it had continually exposed workers to multiple machine hazards
Open-access content
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 Dyson lands £1.2m fine after worker escapes more serious injuries

Friday 5th August 2022
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.
Open-access content
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 Talking shop: hand dominance

Friday 1st July 2022
How should organisations consider left-handedness in their safety management systems? Four industry leaders offer their thoughts.
Open-access content
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