Health and Safety News Roundup

05/03/2018

The first  few months of 2018 have seen more  significant fines handed down  from the courts for health and safety matters.  Here is a roundup of some of these  decisions.

Tata Steel fined £1.4 million

This large fine followed the death of a young maintenance worker in 2010  at Tata Steel’s Scunthorpe works .[1]

Thomas Standerline, 26, was in an access cage examining a crane when another crane began to move, trapping and crushing him.

He died instantly.

The court heard there was only a 12cm clearance between the underside of the crane and the access cage.  Prior to this fatal incident, the HSE had investigated two similar incidents at the Scunthorpe plant; however, the court heard that Tata ignored the “warning signs” and did not enforce its own safety procedures. 

The company pleaded guilty to breaching section 2 and 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was fined £1.4 million plus ordered to pay costs of £140,000.

Comment

Tata’s fine continues the trend of large financial penalties for health and safety breaches under the Sentencing Guidelines .   
This is the latest of a number of large fines handed down to the company in the last two years.  Tata was fined £930,000 in August 2017 when a significant amount of Benzole escaped from the Scunthorpe plant.  And in July 2016, it was fined £1.98 million (reduced on appeal to £1.5 million) after two workers at its Corby manufacturing plant suffered hand injuries when working with machinery.

Martin-Baker Aircraft Ltd fined £1.1 million

The ejection seat manufacturer has been fined £1,1 million and agreed to pay HSE’s costs of £550,000 following its plea of guilty to breaching section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The prosecution followed the death of Red Arrows pilot Flt Lt Sean Cunningham who was ejected from his jet while conducting pre-flight safety checks in November 2011. 

The ejection seat inadvertently fired shooting the deceased into the air.  The parachute on the seat then failed to open and he fell to the ground. The pilot died later in hospital from multiple injuries.

The parachute failed to deploy because two shackles jammed together. An investigation found that this had occurred because during an earlier routine inspection an engineer had overtightened the locknut on one of the shackles.  The company had been aware since the early 1990s that this could occur if the locknut was overtightened.  While the company had advised a number of customers of this issue it had failed to warn the RAF.

Mrs Justice Carr when sentencing the company said it was "an entirely preventable tragedy" and that "A significant number of pilots, and also potential passengers, were exposed to the risk of harm over a lengthy period."

Comment

In applying the Sentencing Guidelines the judge stated that the culpability level was medium, the seriousness of harm risked was Level A, commenting "Here the risk of harm was of the highest level - death" and that the likelihood of harm occurring was low (at an earlier hearing the court was told an assessment by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) was that such an incident would happen only once in more than 100 years).  The harm category was increased because of the number of people exposed to the risk over a lengthy period. 

The company’s turnover was in excess of £200 million a year making it a large company (turnover in excess of £50 million).  The starting point for the fine was £600,000 but the judge increased this to £1.45 million to reflect the fact that the company’s turnover was significantly larger than £50 million. Following consideration of mitigating factors and applying a discount for a guilty plea the fine was reduced to £1.1 million.

Skip company fined £60,000 following employee’s death

MAC Skip Hire Ltd, a skip hire and waste disposal company, has been fined £60,000 and ordered to pay costs of £14,500 after employee, Beverly Upton,  a tipper truck driver, died when she was crushed between two vehicles at the company’s Hinkley site.

Her manager was driving a shovel loader and was attempting to place a piece of carpet into Mrs Upton’s truck when it became stuck.  Mrs Upton got out of her cab and tried to dislodge the carpet. The manager believed she was out of harm’s way before putting the bottom edge of the bucket of his loader on the carpet and then moving it to the vertical position to drag it towards him.   Mrs Upton was not wearing any high-visibility clothing.  The driver said that just prior to the fatal manoeuvre, he saw Mrs Upton move towards her lorry cab and give him the “thumbs up”.  Mrs Upton became trapped between the bucket and the truck.

After the incident HSE served an improvement notice on the company for failing to organise its site to allow pedestrians and vehicles to move around safely and for not having policies and procedures in place for loading work.

The company accepted its failings and pleaded guilty to breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

Following the earlier inquest into Mrs Upton’s death the coroner wrote a prevention of future deaths report pursuant to regulation 28 of the Coroners (Investigations) Regulations 2013. He found that the firm had no written policy in place requiring drivers to remain in their cabs while loading and that the enforcement of wearing high-visibility clothing was not maintained.  He also found staff training was inadequate.

Comment

HSE inspector, Mark Austin stated, 

“This was a tragic and wholly avoidable incident, caused by the failure to ensure that basic site controls and rules were being managed and enforced”.  

Where safety controls are not adequately managed and/or enforced it is no defence to blame the actions of frontline workers.  The Sentencing Guidelines make clear:

“Actions of victims are unlikely to be considered contributory events for sentencing purposes.  Offenders are required to protect workers or others who may be neglectful of their own safety in a way which is reasonably foreseeable”.

£100K fine following fall on farm

Devonshire-based construction contractor firm, C & R Construction, has been fined £100,000 and ordered to pay costs of £11,060., This followed the death of an employee who fell from a roof.  

An HSE investigation found suitable edge protection on the roof had not been provided and a suitable risk assessment for working at height had not been undertaken.  Training was also found to be inadequate.

C & R Construction pleaded guilty to breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.  An HSE inspector stated that if adequate edge protection had been installed, the employee would not have died.

Comment

Falls from height are the second biggest cause of deaths on farms.  The HSE have embarked on a safety initiative, visiting farms and reminding farmers how to manage the risk of falls by ensuring buildings are maintained.