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March/April 2023 issue

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Reporting
Safe systems of work
Construction
News

Number of unsafe excavations rises 7%

Open-access content Tuesday 16th January 2018
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

The construction safety organisation said there were 408 excavation work breaches in 2017, marking a 7% rise compared with the previous year when 382 breaches were reported.

BSG conducted around 11,000 independent inspections for the construction industry over six months. It found a 16% increase in the number of violations between the third and fourth quarters of 2017, from 94 to 109.

Its figures show this was the highest rise compared with previous months. The group reported 111 excavation breaches in the first three months of 2017, up 5% from 106 in the fourth quarter of 2016.

Instances in the second quarter dropped 15% to 94, with the same number recorded in the following three-month period.

BSG's managing director Paul Kimpton said:

"Without suitable support, any face of an excavation will collapse; it's just a matter of when. The steeper and deeper the face and the wetter the soil, the sooner the collapse."

He added: "Trenchless technologies are available which will help to avoid many of the hazards of excavation, but if a trench is required [then] modern, approved systems can allow the ground support to be installed without the need to enter the excavation."

Last year the director of housing developer Conquest Homes was jailed for gross negligence manslaughter after a ground worker was crushed to death in a building site trench.

In 2016 construction giants Kier and Balfour Beatty were handed fines of £1.5m and £2.6m respectively following excavation collapses.

The Health and Safety Executive advises that construction managers must ensure that excavations are made safe by setting up trench supports, battering back, fencing or other equally effective measures. It says that companies should also provide training for staff, highlighting the risks of excavation work. In addition, weekly trench inspections should take place, particularly after bad weather.

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 Survey reveals poor welfare facilities on UK construction sites

Monday 29th January 2018
The September 2017 poll of more than 3,500 Unite members working in construction also found that 22% and 14% of sites were without hot and cold water respectively.  The findings revealed 17% of construction sites had no women’s toilets. Lavatory facilities were described as “inadequate” by 18% of respondents; one in ten sites did not supply toilet paper and half did not have any showers, the study showed.
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 Tideway: On the tools

Thursday 25th January 2018
The infrastructure provider behind the Thames Tideway scheme in London is racking up a first in occupational health (OH) provision. Tideway, the company appointed by Thames Water to build, maintain and operate the 25 km tunnel below the River Thames to relieve the capital of its sewage and rainwater, has mandated an OH service for the entire seven-year project – an arrangement unknown until now in large-scale infrastructure projects.
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 Humber Bridge: open all hours

Thursday 8th February 2018
In January, the Humber Bridge Board (HBB) brought its first private prosecution against an “urban explorer”, Ryan Taylor, who had scaled the 155.5 m tall Barton Tower on the structure’s south bank without permission. The climber was part of a group that had clambered over a barrier and used the bridge’s suspension wires as handrails to walk up the cables to the tower summit.The group took videos and selfies from the top, posting them on YouTube. They had no harnesses or any other safety equipment.
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 Worker fatally crushed between excavator and dumper

Monday 15th January 2018
RMB Contractors was laying a new concrete slab at incinerator bottom ash processor Ballast Phoenix in Sheffield in December 2014 when the incident happened during the ground preparation stage. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that an old cable duct had to be dug out before the concrete could be laid. A 21-tonne tracked excavator was being used to dig out the duct, and a stationary dump truck was parked behind it.
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 Kit form farm builder lands £100,000 fine for fatal fall

Wednesday 24th January 2018
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that the C & R Construction (SW) employee was installing roof sheets on a new agricultural building when the incident occurred on 11 May 2016.C & R Construction (SW) did not provide suitable edge protection. It also failed to ensure there was a sufficient risk assessment and did not ensure that those installing the edge protection and supervising the work had received adequate training.
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 Bad sequencing trapped worker between dumper and excavator

Thursday 25th January 2018
The incident happened in December 2014 during the ground preparation for laying a concrete slab at incinerator ash processor Ballast Phoenix in Sheffield.A 21-tonne tracked excavator was digging out an old steel cable duct from a trench where the concrete was due to be poured, and a dump truck was parked behind it.As the excavator tracked back while digging out the duct, Darren Richardson was crushed between the two machines.
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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.
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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
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Thursday 2nd March 2023
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 PIRC warns safety risks go unreported in workplace safety disclosures review of PLCs

Tuesday 7th June 2022
Companies are deliberately choosing not to report all of their safety breaches and fines, so risks to safety are not being picked up by shareholders and other stakeholders, a review of workforce safety disclosures from publicly listed companies (PLCs) has found.
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 The growth of EHS software

Monday 1st November 2021
The demand to record safety at all stages of a project’s progress is fuelling strong growth in EHS software that creates a ‘data ecosystem’.
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 Penalties mount for vehicle parts maker on OSHA’s ‘severe violator enforcement programme’

Wednesday 10th August 2022
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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.
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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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 HSE report highlights risks posed by hazardous atmospheres in freight containers at ports and distribution centres

Friday 4th November 2022
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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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 Senior managers at food waste plant jailed and family business fined £2m over two fatalities

Friday 1st July 2022
Three senior managers at a food waste recycling plant in Leicestershire have been handed prison sentences for gross negligence that resulted in two workers being overcome by toxic fumes and drowning in a road haulage tanker containing pig feed. The Newark-based family-owned and run business, which is being liquidated, has been fined £2m. We spoke to the HSE’s Principal Inspector to get the full story.
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