Worker in excavator crush on school demolition site

Open-access content Tuesday 12th July 2016

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

Complete Demolition had been contracted to demolish a school at Stanney Lane, Ellesmere Port in Cheshire to make way for a new leisure centre.

On 27 November 2013, while the site was being cleared, a skip truck driver reversed into a space that a 40 tonne excavator was vacating.

Another worker, who was on foot, was standing in the same area. As the excavator manoeuvred it hit him, knocked him to the ground and ran over his foot.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found there was insufficient control of workers and that the procedures to separate pedestrians and vehicles on the site were inadequate.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that the victim has undergone several operations to rebuild his foot and is still unable to work.

Complete Demolition pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act and Regulation 13(2) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007, which covers the safe management and monitoring of construction work by contractors. It was fined and must also pay costs of £7,247.

Speaking after the hearing HSE inspector Deborah Walker said: "The company failed to properly plan for the duration of the works, putting pedestrians at risk."

UPDATED: London council fined £500k after worker sawed leg to the bone

Friday 8th July 2016

Southwark Crown Court heard that George Ball, 58, who was a roadworker for the council, was clearing a blocked drain in a residential street in Romford on 2 March 2015 and needed to cut back trees above the ditch containing the drain.Ball was using a hand-held petrol-driven Stihl cut-off saw with a rotary blade to lop branches when the blade jammed in the wood. As he pulled it free, the blade glanced across the upper part of the his left leg cutting through to the bone. He needed surgery and 60 stitches, and also sustained muscle and ligament damage.

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Search resumes for missing Didcot bodies

Monday 18th July 2016

Ken Cresswell, 57, Chis Huxtable, 34, and John Shaw, 61, were trapped underneath rubble on 23 February and have not been found. Michael Collings, 53, was also killed and his body has already been recovered.The decommissioned Didcot A power station in Oxfordshire was due to be demolished when the boiler house partially collapsed on 23 February. A 50 m exclusion zone was then set up around the site after the remaining structure became unstable.

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Double manslaughter conviction for construction co

Tuesday 28th June 2016

Monavon Construction pleaded guilty to two counts of corporate manslaughter and to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act at the Old Bailey on 9 May. Sentencing took place on 27 June. British Transport Police officer Gavin Brewer, 32, and television producer Stuart Meads, 34, had been out drinking together. The pair were seen on CCTV walking along a street in the early hours of the morning on 19 October 2013.

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UPDATE Untrained fitter killed fixing loading shovel tyre

Monday 27th June 2016

Matthew Hoare, a mobile tyre fitter for Watling Tyre Services (read previous story from earlier this month), was sent out alone to repair the puncture on a wheel of a loading shovel at brick maker Hammill Brick in Kent. He was carrying out a plug repair, when the 1.4 m-diameter tyre failed and exploded.

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Apprentice burned by blowing power line

Thursday 23rd June 2016

Rodd McFarlane, 20, was carrying out repairs at Waulkmill Cottage in Perth and erected a tower scaffold for repointing work. On 2 August 2012, McFarlane was on the scaffold when a gust of wind blew one of the 240v electricity power lines supplying the cottage. It brushed against his back and he instinctively turned and grabbed the live wire. The current made him unable to let go for a few seconds. He sustained burns to both hands, requiring graft surgery and a possible future amputation of one of his little fingers.

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Inadequately guarded conveyor severed worker’s arm

Monday 8th August 2016

Bristol Crown Court heard that the Concrete Fabrications employee, who wants to remain anonymous, was adjusting tension rods to rectify the misaligned conveyor. The bars were inside the machine’s guard, close to the conveyor belt and rotating tail pulley. Aggregate had built up on the tension rods and he attempted to knock it off with a hammer, but it was caught by the rotating machinery. The worker’s arm was dragged in and severed between the shoulder and elbow.

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