Wholesaler fined £25k over employee’s unprotected skylight fall

Open-access content Friday 17th August 2018

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

skylight_fall

Birmingham Magistrates' Court was told that the HK Traders' employee had climbed up a scaffold at the company's premises on the St Chads Industrial Estate on Brearley Close and walked onto the building's flat roof without permission.

However, the Birmingham City Council investigation into the incident on 20 January 2017 found there was no scaffolding. The health and safety inspector also found evidence to suggest the employee had been lifted onto the roof by standing on the pallet of a forklift truck.

The employee was on the roof helping a contractor finish sealing a skylight. When he walked across an unprotected skylight, he fell through it to the ground, sustaining cuts.

The health and safety inspector found that HK Traders had failed to ensure work was carried out safely.

HK Traders pleaded guilty to breaching ss 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act and must also pay £3,900 costs. The judge ordered the company to pay the employee £1,000 compensation.

Fall from dangerous MEWP lands bed firm with £113k fine

Monday 3rd September 2018

The And So To Bed employee was standing on the platform, which was attached to a forklift truck and was open sided, on 1 February 2017 when the accident happened at the company’s factory in Bridport, Dorset. He sustained injuries to his knee and face, Poole Magistrates’ Court was told.The company was fined £113,000 plus £6,924 costs after it pleaded guilty to breaching s 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act and reg 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations.

Open-access content

A demonstration of where the employee's foot was when the lift fell

Employee’s foot crushed by stock retrieval system’s 800 kg lift

Wednesday 8th August 2018

Although the team had activated the emergency stop circuit and assumed this would prevent the machine operating as work was carried out, they had not cut power to the control panel.The incident happened on 28 April 2017 when employees from Logistex were refurbishing the ASRS at the Shop Direct distribution centre on Linney Lane, Shaw, Oldham. The firm’s employee was replacing sensors on the equipment’s lift, which weighed around 800 kg, when it unexpectedly dropped around 1 m, trapping his foot between the lift and the frame of the truck on which he was standing.

Open-access content

Tesco’s £160k roll cage fine is eight times pre-guidelines level

Tuesday 7th August 2018

The difference between the two fines reflects the influence of the sentencing guidelines for OSH offences introduced in 2016, which were intended to increase sanctions on larger employers and the removal of a fine ceiling for magistrates.The employee of Tesco Express in Chadwell-St-Mary, Essex, was working alone when the accident happened on 30 September 2015. The worker was using a tail-lift operated by the delivery vehicle driver to unload the roll cages that held the stock.

Open-access content

Golf course manager fatally claimed competence with chainsaw

Friday 3rd August 2018

Douglas Johnstone, 56, sustained a fatal brain injury while he was working at the Hinckley Golf Club in December 2013. Leicester Crown Court was told that Johnstone was believed to have been using a chainsaw to clear a heavy branch that had broken off a poplar tree during a storm and was lying in an unstable position across several smaller trees. He died alone at the scene and his body was found by a colleague the morning after the accident, on 28 December.

Open-access content

Teen chef had no training before deep fat fryer fall

Thursday 6th September 2018

The 3 A Pub Company, trading as The Cross, pleaded guilty to breaching s 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act and has been fined £25,200 plus £5,900 costs. Environmental health officers from Warwick District Council found that the 18 year old had not received any safety training, information or instruction, despite having worked as an apprentice chef at the restaurant for more than a year. He had not been provided with the findings of risk assessments relating to work at height, use of fryers and contact with heat sources.

Open-access content

Director jailed after unplanned building collapse during demolition

Tuesday 24th July 2018

Manchester Crown Court was told that Riaz Ahmad had hired a group of workers, who had no experience in construction, to demolish a property in Oldham. A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector visited the site on 11 August 2017 after it received a phone call from Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council’s building control department. The inspector found almost all the internal walls and roof supports had been removed and served a prohibition notice on Ahmad preventing any further work and closed a major road that ran past the building.

Open-access content

Topics