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May/June 2023 issue

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Work at height
News

Veolia’s generic risk assessment left worker with brain injuries

Open-access content Friday 8th January 2016
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

The stack of baled waste collapsed on a worker, fracturing his skull and eye socket

Six to eight workers were employed to hand sort waste on the picking line, where materials including plastic and cardboard are sorted according to type and then compacted and bound into rectangular bales. These bales are stored in the yard until being sold on.

Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector Alison Cook told IOSH Magazine there was not a safe system in place for stacking and de-stacking baled waste at Castle Donington. Bales would be stacked in three unsupported columns three bales high, with a bale sometimes placed across the top. This meant the rows of columns were not tied into the rows behind and could fall forwards. Also, de-stacking often left individual columns of bales that could fall either forwards and/or sideways.

"Bales should be stacked so that lower supporting bales are stabilised by overlapping and interlocking upper bales in alternative layers," Cook said. "Periodic monitoring of bale stacks should be done to ensure they remain stable. Putting one bale directly on top of another just created several columns next to each other."

Shortly after 9.30pm, as normal, the workers were sent to sweep up in the yard. Soon after, a stack collapsed and the worker was struck. He suffered fractures to his face and skull causing injuries to his brain.

The HSE's investigation found that Veolia failed to carry out a site specific risk assessment. Instead, it relied on a generic assessment that listed controls for presumed levels of risk. Use of generalised risk assessments had been highlighted as an issue to Veolia by the HSE before.

"Following the HSE guidance which deals with stacking and de-stacking would have pointed Veolia in the direction of interlinking and overlapping," Cook said.

At Leicester Crown Court the company admitted it had failed to ensure that baled waste materials were stored in a way to prevent risk from their collapse - an offence under Regulation 10(4) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 - and fined £450,000, with costs of £11,676.

You may also be interested in...

 Panel fall death costs firms £470,000

Friday 8th January 2016
On 11 January 2011 Travis Hale, a lorry driver for Punchards Haulage responsible for transporting four concrete panels to a construction site in Edinburgh, drove away from Hanson Packed Products’ yard in Derby with only three vehicle straps securing the load instead of the recommended nine to 18. Hale was killed shortly afterwards when one of the panels fell off the trailer and hit him.
Open-access content
An example of limited cutter projection tooling | Image credit: HSE

 Kitchen co had no proper guarding on tenoning machine

Thursday 14th January 2016
The worker had two fingers on his right hand amputated following the incident on 31 October 2014. Bespoke in Oak was sentenced at Northampton Magistrates’ Court, when it was revealed there was no functioning limited cutter projection tooling on the cutting block and dangerous moving parts were exposed.
Open-access content

 In short: Anglian Windows fined for van roof fall

Monday 18th January 2016
Alan Campbell, 47, was fitting a loading platform on 19 June 2012 when he fell. He suffered two bleeds to the brain and was kept in an induced coma for more than three weeks. A metal plate also had to be inserted into his forehead to reshape his face. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Scotland’s prosecution service the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service found Anglian Windows had not provided sufficient information, instruction, training and supervision to employees who loaded and unloaded equipment from van roofs.
Open-access content

 CDM and WAH Regs charges follow six metre fall

Tuesday 19th January 2016
The worker was stood on a platform with unguarded rails, preparing to take down the top level of a unit at a construction site in Westferry Road, London. He slipped and fell over the side of the platform, hitting the concrete floor 5.9 m down. He is no longer able to work having sustained internal bleeding, a collapsed lung and fractures to his pelvis and right arm.
Open-access content
HSE

 Wrong equipment led to solar farm shock

Thursday 21st January 2016
Following the prosecution of British Solar Renewables (BSR) and Pascon earlier this month, IOSH Magazine has been told that Ashley Coe was working on the ground for much of the installation, helping to feed cables into trenches. He later swapped roles with a colleague and controlled the excavator for the first time since work started at the site. The arm of the excavator came into (close) contact with the overhead power line soon after, shocking Coe and two other workers.
Open-access content

 Dock operator overlooked capstan and fined £1.8m

Friday 22nd January 2016
The capstan - a revolving cylinder with a vertical axis - was powered by a motor and used for mooring ships. Its risks had already been brought to the attention of C.RO prior to the incident on 6 June 2014. The man was working with three others to dock the vessel at Purfleet Terminal in Essex when his fingers got caught between the capstan’s rotating drum and a heaving line.His left arm was dragged in and wound around the rotating drum until a co-worker operated the emergency stop device. He sustained nerve and ligament damage as well as fractures.
Open-access content
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