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March/April 2023 issue

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Work at height
Construction
News

Overhead line strike led to multiple amputations

Open-access content Friday 6th October 2017
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

Overhead line strike led to multiple amputations

Swindon Magistrates' Court was told that the structure touched 33 kV overhead power lines on 19 December 2016. The shock he received led to the amputation of his left arm above the elbow, right arm below the elbow and both of his feet. The 32-year-old also suffered severe burns to his legs and back, damage to his vocal chords and was in an induced coma for six weeks.

The Health and Safety Executive investigation found the scaffolding should not have been built so high close to overhead power lines. The company and its director also failed to ensure there was a safe system of work for erecting scaffold under the lines.

Boundary Scaffolding, of Unit 10 Kendrick Industrial Estate, Swindon, pleaded guilty to breaching reg 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act. It was fined £80,000 and ordered to pay £1,415 in costs.

Company director Jonathon Lee Griffiths-Clack, of 12 Grosmont Drive, Swindon, pleaded guilty to breaching reg 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act and s 37 of the Health and Safety at Work Act. He was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to repay costs of £1,545.

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 HSE’s construction blitz targets dust exposure

Tuesday 3rd October 2017
Over the next two weeks HSE inspectors will visit building projects across Britain and focus on respirable silica dust, wood dust and asbestos. Other issues they will target include work at height, structural safety, materials handling and welfare provision. This is the second phase of the inspection programme. During phase one earlier this year the regulator carried out more than 2,000 inspections and took enforcement action on almost half the visits.
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 ‘Negligent culture’ sees recycler and directors fined

Monday 2nd October 2017
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) had visited family-owned Monoworld Recycling’s site in Northamptonshire several times in less than two years and served 15 enforcement notices on the company and three on each of the two directors.Northampton Crown Court was told that the company had not maintained work equipment, had failed to control risks from electrical systems, and had failed to manage work at height risks.
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 Construction firm lands £95k fine for worker’s fall from height injuries

Thursday 12th October 2017
Hammersmith Magistrates’ Court was told this week that an employee at West Hill Projects was carrying out work next to the opening on Wandle Road in London on 5 December 2016 when the incident happened. The worker fell and sustained four fractured vertebrae, a fractured rib and a scalp wound. He was unable to work for several months.
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 Inspectors falsely certified scaffold

Tuesday 26th September 2017
Greater Manchester Magistrates’ Court was told that the 49-year-old victim was working on a reroofing project on 26 March 2014. As he stepped down from the roof onto the scaffolding, he fell through a space between the building and the working platform. He sustained fractures to his spine and had to wear a back brace for eight weeks. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Stephen Harper and Gary Arnold had approved the scaffold as safe without inspecting the structure and had falsified the safety certificates.
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 *UPDATE* Developer lands £200k fine for CDM breaches

Tuesday 12th September 2017
In October 2016, a member of the public raised concerns about conditions at the building site in Mitcham, south London and alerted the HSE. HSE inspector Andrew Verrall-Withers visited Pitcairn Road and found workers demolishing a two-storey block of flats in preparation for the construction of six flats.
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 *UPDATE* Greencore supplied 1.7 m ladder for 3 m job

Monday 11th September 2017
Self-employed electrician David Shanks had been contracted by Greencore to fit new machinery designed to deliver icing sugar to mixing machines located in the sugar paste room at its cake and dessert production factory in Hull. The work involved wiring two motors, which were on a gantry 3 m above ground.
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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
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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 Farmyard electrocution led to three separate sentences

Wednesday 21st December 2022
On 30 September 2019, an employee of Connop and Son Ltd was pouring concrete at Worton Grounds Farm near Banbury when the arm of a mobile concrete pump he was using came into contact with an overhead powerline.
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 Failures to apply learnings led to £3.6m fine

Wednesday 7th September 2022
A mining company has been fined £3.6 million after two electricians suffered severe burns in separate incidents.
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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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 British Airways subsidiary fined £230K after engineer suffers life-changing fall

Thursday 16th February 2023
We speak to HSE inspector Dr Sara Lumley about a case where an aircraft engineer fell from a maintenance dock, causing life-changing injuries.
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 2.3m fatal fall results in £480,000 fine

Thursday 6th October 2022
We speak with HSE inspector Pippa Trimble about how a lorry driver’s fatal fall resulted in an almost half-million-pound fine
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  Fatal fall lands family-owned firm with £190,000 fine

Tuesday 30th August 2022
A waste and recycling firm has been found guilty of safety failings after an experienced maintenance contractor sustained fatal injuries in a seven-metre fall
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