Skip to main content
IOSH Magazine: Safety, Health and Wellbeing in the world of work - return to the homepage IOSH Magaazine logo
  • Visit IOSH Magazine on Facebook
  • Visit @ioshmagazine on Twitter
  • Visit IOSH Magazine on LinkedIn
Non-verbal communication
How to build trust
March/April 2023 issue

Main navigation

  • Home
    • Browse previous issues
    • Member accolades
    • Member tributes
  • Health
    • Mental health and wellbeing
      • Bullying
      • Drugs and alcohol
      • Mental health
      • Stress
      • Wellbeing
    • Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs)
      • Ergonomics
      • Manual handling
      • Vibration
    • Occupational cancer
      • Asbestos
      • Hazardous substances
      • Radiation
  • Safety
    • Incident management
      • Chemicals
      • Electricity
      • Fire
      • First aid
      • Slips and trips
    • Non-health related fatalities
      • Road safety
      • Work at height
    • Risk management
      • Confined spaces
      • Disability
      • Legionella
      • Lifting operations
      • Lone workers
      • Noise
      • Personal protective equipment
      • Violence at work
      • Work equipment
      • Workplace transport
  • Management
    • Human factors
      • Accident reduction
      • Behavioural safety
      • Control of contractors
      • Migrant workers
      • Older workers
      • Reporting
      • Safe systems of work
      • Sickness absence
      • Young workers
    • Leadership and management
      • Employee involvement
      • Management systems
    • Management standards
      • ISO 45001
      • ISO 45003
    • Planning
      • Assurance
      • Compliance
      • Emergency planning
      • Insurance
    • Rehabilitation
      • Personal injury
      • Return to work
    • Strategy
      • Corporate governance
      • Performance/results
      • Regulation/enforcement
      • Reputation
    • Sustainability
      • Human capital and Vision Zero
  • Skills
    • Communication
    • Personal performance
      • Achieving Fellowship
      • Career development
      • Competencies
      • Personal development
      • Professional skills
      • Qualifications
    • Stakeholder management
    • Working with others
      • Leadership
      • Future Leaders
  • Jobs
  • Covid-19
  • Knowledge Bank
    • Back to basics
    • Book club
    • Infographics
    • Podcast
    • Reports
    • Webinars
    • Videos
  • Products & Services
  • Management
    • Human factors
      • Sickness absence
      • Accident reduction
      • Behavioural safety
      • Control of contractors
      • Migrant workers
      • Older workers
      • Reporting
      • Safe systems of work
      • Young workers
    • Leadership and management
      • Employee involvement
      • Leadership
      • Management systems
    • Management standards
      • ISO 45001
      • ISO 45003
    • Planning
      • Assurance
      • Compliance
      • Emergency planning
      • Insurance
    • Strategy
      • Corporate governance
      • Performance/results
      • Regulation/enforcement
      • Reputation
    • Sustainability
      • Human capital and Vision Zero
  • Health
    • COVID-19
    • Mental health and wellbeing
      • Bullying
      • Drugs and alcohol
      • Mental health
      • Stress
      • Wellbeing
    • Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs)
      • Ergonomics
      • Manual handling
      • Vibration
    • Occupational cancer
      • Asbestos
      • Hazardous substances
      • Radiation
  • Safety
    • Incident management
      • Chemicals
      • Electricity
      • Fire
      • First aid
      • Slips and trips
    • Non-health related fatalities
      • Road safety
      • Work at height
    • Risk management
      • Confined spaces
      • Disability
      • Legionella
      • Lifting operations
      • Lone workers
      • Noise
      • Personal protective equipment
      • Violence at work
      • Work equipment
      • Workplace transport
  • Skills
    • Communication
    • Personal performance
      • Career development
      • Competencies
      • Personal development
      • Qualifications
      • Professional skills
      • Achieving Fellowship
    • Stakeholder management
    • Working with others
      • Leadership
      • Future Leaders
  • Transport and logistics
  • Third sector
  • Retail
  • Mining and quarrying
  • Rail
  • Rehabilitation
    • Personal injury
    • Return to work
  • Utilities
  • Manufacturing and engineering
  • Construction
  • Sector: IOSH Branch
    • Sector: Northern Ireland
    • Sector: Midland
    • Sector: Merseyside
    • Sector: Manchester and North West Districts
    • Sector: Ireland East
    • Sector: Ireland
    • Sector: Edinburgh
    • Sector: Desmond-South Munster
    • Sector: Qatar
    • Sector: Oman
    • Singapore
    • Sector: South Coast
    • Sector: South Wales
    • Sector: Thames Valley
    • Sector: Tyne and Wear
    • Sector: UAE
    • Sector: West of Scotland
    • Sector: Yorkshire
  • Healthcare
  • Sector: Fire
  • Sector: Financial/general services
  • Sector: Energy
  • Education
  • Sector: Communications and media
  • Chemicals
  • Sector: Central government
  • Catering and leisure
  • Agriculture and forestry
  • Sector: Local government
  • Sector: IOSH Group
    • Sector: Financial Services
    • Sector: Sports Grounds and Events
    • Rural industries
    • Sector: railway
    • Public Services
    • Sector: Offshore
    • Sector: Hazardous Industries
    • Sector: Food and Drink
    • Sector: Fire Risk Management
    • Education
    • Construction
    • Sector: Aviation and Aerospace
Quick links:
  • Home
  • Categories
  • Topics
  • Management
  • Human factors
  • Safe systems of work
Work equipment
Construction
News

Falcon fined £750,000 ten years on from Battersea collapse

Open-access content Thursday 17th March 2016
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

rexfeatures_2089022a

The collapse happened in 2006 at a Barratt Homes development in Battersea. Crane driver Jonathan Cloke was in the cab as the jib fell 50 m on to Michael Alexa, a member of the public who was washing his car in a street beside the site. Both men died.

Southwark Crown Court was told sections of the tower crane separated when 24 bolts failed due to metal fatigue.

The bolts were on the crane's slew ring, which connected the mast to the slew turret, allowing the arms of the jib to rotate 360 degrees. When the bolts failed the slew turret and jib separated from the mast and fell off.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found Falcon Crane Hire had not learned from a similar incident nine weeks earlier, when four slew ring bolts sheered on the same crane and all the bolts were replaced.

The HSE found the company had an inadequate system to manage inspection and maintenance of its crane fleet. Its process to investigate the underlying cause of components' failings was also lacking. The court heard the bolts' previous failure was an exceptional and significant occurrence, which should have triggered an investigation by Falcon.

Another Falcon tower crane collapsed in Liverpool four months after the Battersea accident, killing one person. The HSE subsequently issued the company with a prohibition notice requiring it to take 180 cranes out of service until they had been independently examined.

Falcon Crane Hire was fined £750,000 and ordered to pay costs of £100,000 for breaching Sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act.

When the company was formally arraigned in February 2015 the GMB trade union's national health and safety officer John McClean said the 10-year delay before trial was "an outrage and completely unacceptable".

You may also be interested in...

 Packaging company left multiple pinch points

Thursday 17th March 2016
The worker, who wishes to remain anonymous, was employed by Signode, a division of ITW, as an electrical maintenance engineer at its Swansea, Wales, site. On 30 May 2013 he offered to help on the polyester sheet production line after one of the five people who were supposed to be on shift called in sick. As he was rethreading plastic into the pinch roller, his glove was caught and the machine dragged in his right hand. He pulled his hand free but his index finger was so badly damaged it had to be surgically removed below the knuckle.
Open-access content
©REX Shutterstock

 Didcot update: RWE to provide safe method of working plan

Monday 14th March 2016
One person was killed and five were injured when part of boiler house at the former Didcot A power station in Oxfordshire collapsed on 23 February. Three men are still missing. The joint statement said: “The site owners RWE have overall responsibilities for the safety of buildings and structure on their site. They must produce a plan for a safe method of working before the next stage of the recovery can begin. Once this is received and approved by HSE, emergency services are on hand to recover the missing men.
Open-access content

 Construction worker fell 13 m down service riser

Friday 1st April 2016
The 36-year-old David Ashley Construction employee, originally from Romania, was working in a building under construction at De Montfort University. He was dismantling falsework when the accident happened on 15 June 2015. The Health and Safety Executive launched an investigation and found there was an unsafe system of work and inadequate supervision.
Open-access content
©ANL/REX/Shutterstock

 £240k fine for sealing co that failed to guard dangerous machinery

Monday 4th April 2016
The employee’s left arm was caught between two rollers in October 2013 as he tried to fix a laminating machine. He sustained multiple fractures to his arm, as well as muscle and nerve damage. The Health and Safety Executive’s investigation found the risk assessment for the laminating machine was unsuitable and the company had not taken adequate measures to prevent access to dangerous moving parts.
Open-access content
Natural Insulation's failings related to controlling substances hazardous to health | Image credit: ©iStock/W6

 In short: Insulation co had poor COSHH assessment

Thursday 25th February 2016
Natural Insulation (formerly Black Mountain Insulation) did not conduct an adequate assessment for processing hemp and failed to adequately guard machinery. The investigation was carried out following concerns raised anonymously.
Open-access content
©ANL/REX/Shutterstock

 Selig added guard to laminater after injury

Friday 8th April 2016
As we reported earlier this week, Selig UK employee Thomas Jones’ arm was fractured in several places and he sustained muscle and nerve damage while trying to fix the company’s bespoke, 28 m laminating machine on 15 October 2013.
Open-access content

Latest from News

web-morrison-shutterstock_1205515750.png

  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
jfc

 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 Construction

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
BVJK

 Musculoskeletal disorders in construction

Thursday 2nd March 2023
Ian Whittles, an HSE construction inspector, reveals the cultural challenges in the sector, the drive behind the Work Right campaign and the musculoskeletal benefits it hopes to achieve.
Open-access content
dru

 Principal contractor handed £146k fine for fatal excavator crush goes into liquidation

Tuesday 14th February 2023
Birch Brothers (Kidderminster) Ltd was the principal contractor on a construction project in Derbyshire that was building a concrete overflow weir structure on the site. The Midlands firm had brought in steel fixers and joiners to undertake the work.
Open-access content

Latest from Safe systems of work

web_United-States-flag_credit_iStock-487485528.png

 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
Dyson HSE lead photo.jpg

 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
web_p74_Talking-Shop.png

 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

Latest from Work equipment

One of the machine's two interlocks.jpg

 Ineffective control measures on industrial food mixer led to amputation and £858k fine

Thursday 12th January 2023
A Kent-based food production company has been fined £858,000 after a 26-year-old employee had to have his right arm surgically removed following an incident.
Open-access content
Web-iStock-937270176.jpg

 Chipboard manufacturer lands record £2.15m Scottish fine for fatal 90% burns

Tuesday 29th November 2022
Chipboard manufacturer Norbord Europe Limited has been fined £2.15m after a four-week trial held at Perth Sheriff Court in Scotland found that a series of failings at its Cowie site in Stirlingshire in July 2016 had led to an employee’s death.
Open-access content
P1000615.JPG

 Poor planning of floorspace led to worker’s burns death

Thursday 24th November 2022
We spoke to HSE Inspector Rose Leese-Weller about how failures in the earliest stages of planning a catering equipment cleaning facility’s shopfloor ultimately led to a worker fatality.
Open-access content
Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Linked in
  • Mail
  • Print

Latest Jobs

Senior Health and Safety Manager

Reading
Up to £65000.00 per annum + Great Car Allowance & Benefits
Reference
5452983

Regional Health and Safety Advisor

Northampton
Up to £53000 per annum + Travel & Excellent Benefits
Reference
5452982

Global Health, Safety and Environment Director

Up to £150000 per annum + Excellent Benefits
Reference
5452980
See all jobs »

Sign up for regular e-alerts

Receive the latest news and features, free to your inbox

Sign up

Subscribe to IOSH magazine

Receive the print edition straight to your door

Subscribe
IOSH Covers
​
FOLLOW US
Twitter
LinkedIn
YouTube
CONTACT US
Contact us
Tel +44 (0)20 7880 6200
​

IOSH

About IOSH
Become a member
IOSH Events
MyIOSH

Information

Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
Cookie Policy

Get in touch

Contact us
Advertise with us
Subscribe to IOSH magazine
Write for IOSH magazine

IOSH Magazine

Health
Safety
Management
Skills
IOSH Jobs

© 2023 IOSH • IOSH is not responsible for the content of external sites

ioshmagazine.com and IOSH Magazine are published by Redactive Media Group. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any part is not allowed without written permission.

Redactive Media Group Ltd, 71-75 Shelton Street, London WC2H 9JQ