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March/April 2023 issue

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Fall from dangerous MEWP lands bed firm with £113k fine

Open-access content Monday 3rd September 2018
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

Fall from dangerous MEWP lands bed firm with £113k fine

The And So To Bed employee was standing on the platform, which was attached to a forklift truck and was open sided, on 1 February 2017 when the accident happened at the company's factory in Bridport, Dorset. He sustained injuries to his knee and face, Poole Magistrates' Court was told.

The company was fined £113,000 plus £6,924 costs after it pleaded guilty to breaching s 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act and reg 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations.

An investigation by environmental health officers from West Dorset District Council found that And So to Bed had invested in a safer system after its 2006 safety and health audit report said the use of the makeshift platform was "unacceptable". Despite this, the dangerous MEWP had continued to be used on an almost daily basis.

It had failed to manage the risk of staff falling from the MEWP and had not implemented a safe system of work. The personal protective equipment provided to employees was also "inadequate", the council said.

And So To Bed implemented a new safety and health regime after the accident, which the judge acknowledged at the sentencing hearing on 28 August.

Councillor Anthony Alford, leader of West Dorset District Council, said: "The health and safety practices of And So To Bed were simply not good enough. This accident should never have happened and could have been avoided."

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 Wholesaler fined £25k over employee’s unprotected skylight fall

Friday 17th August 2018
Birmingham Magistrates’ Court was told that the HK Traders’ employee had climbed up a scaffold at the company’s premises on the St Chads Industrial Estate on Brearley Close and walked onto the building’s flat roof without permission. However, the Birmingham City Council investigation into the incident on 20 January 2017 found there was no scaffolding. The health and safety inspector also found evidence to suggest the employee had been lifted onto the roof by standing on the pallet of a forklift truck.
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 Dessert maker fined £50k for MD's mother's fragile ceiling fall injuries

Tuesday 25th September 2018
Basildon Magistrates’ Court heard on 21 September how the MD's mother, an Indulgence Patisserie employee, was asked to sort shoes, which were stored on a floor next to an unprotected area of fragile ceiling tiles when the incident happened on 8 January 2016.While carrying out the non-routine task, the employee fell around 2.7 m. The injuries she sustained resulted in a five-day hospital stay.
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 ‘Foolhardy’ Tata Steel fined £450k after worker fell into open pit

Thursday 6th September 2018
Steven Ayres was injured working as a scaler on the scarfing line, in which metal is torched to remove imperfections, at the steelmaker’s billet mill in Stocksbridge, Sheffield. A billet is a cast or hot-rolled length of steel that can be further processed to make bars or rods. Water runoff and impurities from the scarfing process were collected in a skip stored below ground in a pit 3.7 m by 2.5 m by 2.5 m and covered by two metal plates that sat flush with the floor.
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 Structural steelwork co in the frame for £150k fine over roofer’s spinal injury

Thursday 13th September 2018
An employee of Northern Structures was removing roof sheets from a timber-framed farm building on 20 September 2017 when he fell through one of the asbestos cement roof sheets, landing 4 m below. A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that, although Northern Structures had provided a risk assessment and method statement to remove the roof sheets from below the frame, the method was then changed so the worker had to stand on the roof and remove the sheets.
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 Word of mouth training regime led to warehouse worker’s 14 m fall

Friday 14th September 2018
Andrej Grzeszczak was working at Great Bear Distribution’s premises in Desborough on 14 January 2016 when his vehicle was struck by another warehouse operations controller working in the same aisle. Grzeszczak’s vehicle toppled and he fell, sustaining fatal injuries. Great Bear Distribution pleaded guilty to breaching s 2(1) of the Health and Safety and Work Act and was fined £323,000 plus £30,000 costs.
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 £500k fine over smith’s death while using wrong hammer

Tuesday 21st August 2018
Abbey Forged Products employee Billy Fairweather, 35, was part of a group of four that had been tasked with hammering pieces of hard alloy. While he was working on a small piece of metal, he switched from the powered hammer he had been assigned to a larger, more powerful one. Sheffield Crown Court was told that he was knelt close to the hammer when the piece of hard alloy misaligned and was forcefully expelled. Fairweather fell backwards and sustained fatal injuries.
Open-access content
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