Jamie Mines, a father of five, was working at height, erecting scaffolding when he came into contact with 33kV overhead powerlines.  He suffered a severe electric shock.  This resulted in the eventual amputation of both hands and feet.  He also suffered serious burns to his legs and back, damage to his vocal chords and kidneys and was placed in an induced coma for six weeks.

Boundary Scaffolding pleaded guilty to breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act.  The section states:

2 General duties of employers to their employees.

(1) It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees.

The company was fined £80,000, and its director faces a suspended prison sentence.

This incident highlights the importance of adequate risk assessment and ensuring planning is done to ensure a safe system of work-based eliminating or mitigating the risks identified.  

Worker’s death highlights importance of reviewing pre-existing risk assessments when buying a business

Fresco Environmental was fined £70,000, and the company’s managing director was handed a six-month suspended sentence after a worker was crushed to death by a falling carpet bale.

In March 2016, Kevin Wright and his co-worker were separating different types of carpet waste before it was shredded.  One of the carpet bales fell on Mr Wright.  He died a short time later in hospital.

Evidence later showed that each bale weighed around 300-500kg.  They were not of uniform size, and they were only tied with a small amount of wire binding.  The bales were stacked up to four high and placed directly on top of one another.  Because they were not the same size and weight, the stacking proved very unstable.  Instability was further enhanced by vibrating machinery running nearby.

HSE inspector, Helen Jones stated the bales should have been arranged in a pyramid shape of in an interlocking brick pattern.  This would have made them more stable.
Ms Jones identified the previous owner had performed the current risk assessment.  Although it did recognise the need to manage risks surrounding the stacking of the bales, Ms Jones told Health and Safety at Work magazine, the document outlining good practice was not “suitable or sufficient” and was not applied.  “It talked about doing daily inspections on stacks, but there were no records of any inspections”, she said.

Ms Jones pointed out that managing director, Lee Heaps oversaw workers in the warehouse and was therefore not remote from the risks employees were facing.  Ms Jones commented, “He directed the lads in their work, and had direct control of that process.  He was in [the] perfect position to control it and improve the standard.”

The HSE inspector’s observations of the fact the managing director was “on the shop floor” and could observe and manage risk links back to director’s duties regarding health and safety.  As we mentioned in a previous blog , the courts are not oblivious to the fact one of the main functions of a director is to delegate, and they cannot be expected to be aware of certain risks if they have delegated responsibility for managing health and safety risks to another employee. 

This case also highlights the importance of reviewing health and safety risk documents when taking over a business.  Often fresh eyes can spot potential problems, leading to new policies and procedures being put in place, mitigating the chance of an accident occurring.

Iceland fined £2.5 million after a contractor falls to his death

In one of the largest fines for a health and safety offence ever handed down, food retail giant Iceland was fined £2.5 million after a contractor died working at height.

The level of the fine shows the court’s willingness to deliver large financial penalties under the Health and Safety Offences, Corporate Manslaughter and Food Safety and Hygiene Offences Sentencing Guidelines.  The guidelines allow the court to link fines to the turnover of an organisation (Iceland’s turnover to for the year to March 2016 was £2.675 billion).

The accident occurred when contractor Tony Hopkins was replacing filters in an air conditioning unit in Iceland’s warehouse.  He was standing on a “plant platform”.  There were no barriers in place, and Mr Hopkins fell almost three metres and through a suspended ceiling.

In addition to there being no barriers to prevent falls from the platform, HSE inspectors found the area of the platform immediately in front of the access ladder was only 45cm in width.  There were also several trip hazards in the area in the form of loose cables.

No risk assessment on access to the platform had been carried out.

Iceland argued that it was entitled to rely on expert contractors to identify the missing handrail, but this was rejected by the court.  This illustrates the importance of health and safety risks assessors to consider not only the safety of employers but contractors and the general public.  

Fisher Scoggins Waters are a London based law firm and are experts in construction, manufacturing, and engineering law.  If you have any questions about health and safety matters or require an emergency response to an incident, please phone Michael Appleby on 0207 993 8264.