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Electrical panel builder fined after 750 kg unit fell on engineer

Open-access content Tuesday 7th November 2017
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

Newcastle-under-Lyme Magistrates' Court was told that the Instrument and Control Services employee was moving the control panel on 2 February 2016. The unit, which weighed between 650 and 750 kg and was top heavy, toppled over and pinned the engineer to the ground.

He sustained a pelvic fracture that split apart the left and right sides of his lower pelvis.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the company had not risk assessed the task and had not provided a safe system of work or proper instruction and training.

Instrument and Control Services, which manufactures control panels and protection panels and supplies and installs switchgear and transformers, pleaded guilty to breaching s 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act. It was fined £60,000 and ordered to pay almost £3,000 in costs.

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