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Practice meets perfect
May/June 2023 issue

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Sector: Energy
News

Industrial cleaning worker acquitted over teenager’s spooler death

Open-access content Tuesday 26th June 2018
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

Industrial cleaning worker acquitted over teenager's spooler death

Dean Reynolds, who had denied the charge, was acquitted after the jury at Aberdeen Sheriff Court returned a "not proven" majority verdict earlier this month following an eight-day trial.

According to the Press & Journal, Reynolds had been accused of starting up the spooler while Michael McLean was inside preparing it for painting.

The trial heard that McLean was found unconscious and bleeding from the ears in the spooler, which raises and lowers subsea cables from oil platforms and boats. The trial was told he had sustained a broken neck and torn spinal cord, which was consistent with tumbling inside a machine. His father, who also worked for the industrial cleaners Denholm MacNamee, tried to save his son's life by performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation. However, Michael died in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary six days later.

Denholm MacNamee, from Inverurie in Aberdeenshire, had pleaded guilty to breaching s 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act and failing in its duty of care to a young person on 4 December 2017. It was fined £120,000.

The Press & Journal reported that prosecutor Richard Goddard had pointed to circumstantial evidence heard at the trial that pointed to Reynolds' guilt. He urged the jury to convict him of a killing charge.

However, defending, Iain Duguid QC, said there had been no evidence of a prank on the last day of a summer job and no evidence of any motive for Reynolds to injure the teenager. He told the court: "Not a single person heard the machine being operated".

A safety and health expert told the court that it would have been possible for McLean to start the machine when he was inside the drum, but he would not have been able to stop it once it had started rotating.

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 GB workplace fatality rate continues to plateau, says HSE

Thursday 5th July 2018
This corresponds to a rate of 0.45 deaths per 100,000 workers and reflects the average five-year (2013-14 to 2017-18) rate of 0.45 per 100,000 workers, or 141 deaths. Statisticians focus on the rate of accidents rather than the absolute total because it is not distorted by variations in numbers employed in the economy year to year.
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 Bouncy castle death couple jailed for three years

Friday 15th June 2018
William and Shelby Thurston were overseeing several rides at Thurston’s Funfair in Harlow Town Park in Essex in March 2016 when Summer Grant died. The inflatable dome she was playing on blew into the air, was carried 300 m across the park and struck a tree. Summer died in hospital after sustaining multiple injuries to her head, neck and chest.Justice Garnham sentenced the couple each to three years in prison today at Chelmsford Crown Court.
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 Solar panel installer sustained spinal fracture in 5 m scaffold fall

Thursday 7th June 2018
Jhanade Ryan was installing solar panels on the roof of roofing and cladding sheeting manufacturer Firth Steels, when he slipped on the fragile surface in Brighouse, West Yorkshire, in December 2015. The subcontracted roofer, who was working for solar power firm Centreco (UK), slid down to the edge protection and fell 5 m through scaffolding when the toe board snapped. He landed on a sub-station roof and sustained a spinal fracture, a broken coccyx and nerve damage. Ryan spent almost three months in hospital but has been left unable to work by impaired mobility.
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 Effective return to work programmes after cancer are ‘essential’, says EU-OSHA

Friday 1st June 2018
The report is based on a recent study commissioned by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) that examined the issues faced by workers affected by cancer. Researchers said optimising the rehabilitation and return of those affected by cancer would improve their wellbeing and reduce the financial impacts of the disease on European businesses. They have recommended the development of new legislation that obliges all employers to offer return-to-work programmes for their employees.
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 Contractor pays £566,670 for line strike with no injury

Wednesday 30th May 2018
The driver was employed by Mick George, a company that supplies earth moving, demolition, skip hire and waste management services to the construction industry. On 9 March 2016 he was emptying a load of soil from the tipper at a construction site in Northampton.  He drove forward with the dump bed still raised and touched – or almost touched – the 33kV overhead power lines.
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 Failure to segregate pedestrians and forklifts lands Bakkavor subsidiary with £176k penalty

Tuesday 26th June 2018
The worker was unloading empty food trays when the accident happened on 22 March 2016. Falkirk Sheriff Court was told that a forklift driver hit a stack of empty trays, which toppled on to the worker. He hit his head as he fell over and died from his injuries two weeks later. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found Bakkavor Foods had failed to provide enough clearance between pedestrians and workplace vehicles.   The company pleaded guilty to breaching s 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act and was fined £176,000.
Open-access content
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