Whirlpool fined £700k for fatal MEWP conveyor strike

Open-access content Thursday 23rd March 2017

From the archive: Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

In March 2015, the 66-year-old contractor was installing fire detection equipment at Whirlpool's factory at Yate, near Bristol (formerly owned by Indesit), where it manufactures tumble dryers. He was working at a height of 5 m when Whirlpool maintenance staff, unaware of his presence, started an overhead conveyor. The movement destabilised the MEWP, toppling it and dropping the contractor to the factory floor, fatally injuring him.

The Health and Safety Executive found there was no supervision or controls to prevent the conflicting tasks being carried out.

At Bristol Crown Court Whirlpool UK Appliances admitted breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act and was fined £700,000 plus court costs of £11,466.

Aircraft co fined for MEWP falls which 'could have been a double fatality'

Monday 20th March 2017

The accident involved an employee of Inflite Engineering Services and an agency worker, who were carrying out checks to the tail of an aeroplane, Chelmsford Magistrates' Court was told.The two men were standing on MEWPs either side of the plane's tail when another worker closed the wrong circuit breaker, inadvertently opening the air brakes (used to increase drag or the angle of approach during landing) and knocking over both platforms.

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Recycler to pay £160k for bale crush coma

Monday 27th March 2017

Forty-nine-year-old employee Parvez Ahmed was left fighting for his life when an unstable stack of cardboard bales, weighing around 400kg, tumbled over and landed on him as he was carrying out work at the firm’s recycling site on 22 April 2016. Ahmed suffered a cracked skull and a brain haemorrhage.Arrow Recycling of Premier Works, Cornwall Road, Smethwick, West Midlands pleaded guilty to breaching reg 10(4) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and was sentenced at Wolverhampton Magistrates’ last week. The company was also ordered to pay £2,917 in costs.

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UPDATED Stately home operator lift defect oversight led to butler’s death

Monday 13th March 2017

Burghley House Preservation Trust, which operates Burghley House in Stamford, Lincolnshire, failed to implement standard industry measures, including fitting a slack rope detector to the lift. Had it also employed a competent lift engineer, the trust would have identified that no safety gear had been fitted to prevent the lift from descending rapidly.

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HSE. The four workers were moving the ventilation unit from the tower scaffold (right) on to the orange and blue racking. The wooden platform (missing in pic) adjacent to the panel seen above left, gave way

UPDATED DIY chain Leyland stacks up £450k fine after four fell in warehouse refurb

Thursday 2nd March 2017

The company had failed to recognise its roles as client and the principal contractor under the Construction (Design and Management) (CDM) Regulations 2015.Two of the four men suffered leg fractures; a third sustained a broken collar bone, while the fourth sustained severe bruising of the chest, which required him to wear a body vest. Had LSDM properly managed the working at height and lifting risks, and also provided the right level of trained personnel and supervision to carry out the work safely, the incident would not have happened.

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Stately home operator lift defect oversight led to butler’s death

Tuesday 28th February 2017

Arthur Mellar, who was a butler at Burghley House in Stamford, Lincolnshire, was crushed to death by the lift on 12 July 2014 after it descended on him while he was attempting to free a piece of luggage that had become stuck. He was trapped between the lift cage and the banister of the stairwell, which houses the lift. Mellar died in hospital hours later after sustaining severe injuries.

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Cormac Gilligan, PepsiCo

Tuesday 21st March 2017

Cormac Gilligan, CMIOSH, is concerned about the millennial generation. Specifically, about how to hold on to the brightest and the best of those who reached adulthood since 2000.“It’s the talent conundrum that we generally have in our field,” he says, “how to engage the millennials – the oldest of them are entering their mid-30s now.”

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Topics

Safe systems of work

Work at height

Work equipment

Manufacturing and engineering

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