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March/April 2023 issue

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Construction
News

Fatal head injury leaves Balfour Beatty with £1m fine

Open-access content Wednesday 27th January 2016
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

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.

Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering admitted offences under Sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act and must pay £14,977 in costs.

Andrew Cousins, a Health and Safety Executive inspector, said this "entirely preventable" incident was down to a lack of a safe system of work and could have been avoided with the use of a "suitably sized excavator -¦ to remove the footing mechanically".

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 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
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.
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 Brick pack fall brings Cheshire contractor £400k penalty

Tuesday 2nd February 2016
Edgemere Projects of Tarporley, Cheshire, was principal contractor at a construction site in Wilmslow when a pack of bricks fell on 23 year-old Andrew Dytiche on 7 January 2011. Dytiche sustained fatal crush injuries.HSE inspector found materials storage at the site was badly organised and pallets used to store and move bricks were also in poor condition.Edgemere Projects pleaded guilty to charges of failing to protect employees and contractors under Sections 2(1) & 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and was fined £97,500 plus £300,000 prosecution costs.
Open-access content
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 Housing trust hand mangling was down to lack of RAMS

Tuesday 19th January 2016
As we reported last week, on 28 March 2014 the 24-year-old gardener was using a ride-on mower to maintain the green spaces around the housing association’s estates in Hitchen Drive, Dukinfield. The chute to the grass box, which is located behind the driver’s seat on the mower, kept blocking up (as often as once every few minutes).
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 In short: Exploding gas cylinder hit worker in the head

Monday 8th February 2016
A pressurised gas cylinder was put through a shearing machine for processing on 16 June 2009 when it exploded. Tony Johnson, 55, was hit in the head by a large section of the cylinder and died from his injuries. The Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) investigation found Walter Heselwood had not adequately assessed the risks from handling different types of scrap metal and failed to implement appropriate measures to minimise these risks, such as installing a blast wall.
Open-access content
An X-ray of the young worker’s damaged left hand | Image credit: ©HSE

 Housing trust fined after worker sustains life-changing injuries

Monday 11th January 2016
The 24-year-old from Stockport also sustained several broken bones in the accident on 28 March 2014.On 7 January, Manchester Crown Court was told that the worker was driving a ride-on mower with a grass box attached. When the chute to the grass box became blocked with long, wet grass – as often happened – the employee reached in to clear it. His hand came into contact with the rotating metal fan and was seriously injured. He is now unable to grip with his left hand or use his remaining fingers.
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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.
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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
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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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 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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 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.
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 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.
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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
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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.
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 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.
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 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.
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 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
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