HSE

A food manufacturing company has been fined after a worker fell six metres from the back of a fork lift truck.

Lincoln Magistrates’ Court heard how an employee of Fishgate Limited was instructed on 16 July 2013 to paint guttering and drainpipes on the outside of a factory in Brookenby, Lincolnshire. The employee was raised up by a forklift driver in an unsecured tote box to paint when he fell to the ground from a height of around six metres resulting in a dislocated arm, cracked pelvis, broken foot and shattered leg.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the work was not properly planned nor was it adequately supervised. The injured worker had not received any training or advice on how to correctly carry out the task.

Fishgate Limited of Brookenby Business Park, Brookenby, Lincolnshire, was found guilty of breaching Section 2(1) of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974. The company has been fined £100,000 and ordered to pay £19,032.63 in costs.

Speaking after the trial, HSE inspector Samantha Farrar said: “This work activity should have been properly planned. The injured worker should have been given the correct equipment as well as instruction as to how to carry out the work. The company also failed to adequately supervise the activity which could have prevented the incident.”

Notes to Editors:

1. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice, promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice, and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk^[1][1]
2. More about the legislation referred to in this case can be found at: www.legislation.gov.uk/ ^[2][2]

HSE news releases are available at http://press.hse.gov.uk

HSL is to run a 2 day course on Taming Tigers: Safety Excellence in Engineering – in partnership with The University of Manchester.

13 – 14 September 2017

Why big cats and engineering?

If we think of traditional health and safety risks as lions (dangerous but we can see them and take action) then process safety hazards are tigers.  Latent failures lurking in the jungle, not easily visible until they pounce with potentially catastrophic consequences. Learning to tame these tigers helps industry avoid catastrophe and improve performance.

Why Big Cats and Engineering?

If we think of traditional health and safety risks as lions (dangerous but we can see them and take action) then major accidents are tigers. Latent failures lurking in the jungle, not visible until they pounce with catastrophic consequences. By taming tigers industry can avoid catastrophe and improve performance.

For further information email: training@hsl.gsi.gov.uk or contact the Training & Conferences Unit at HSL directly on +44 (0)1298 218806.

Back to Health and Safety Seminars

United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust has been fined following the death of 53-year-old John Biggadike at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston.

Lincoln Crown Court heard that Mr Biggadike, who was a patient at the hospital, died on 10 April 2012 from internal injuries after falling onto an exposed metal post on the standing aid hoist that staff were using to support him.

The kneepad on the standing aid hoist had been incorrectly removed leaving the exposed metal post that caused the fatal injuries when he collapsed after standing up.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found the Trust did not have systems for training and monitoring how staff used the standing aid hoist and unsafe practices had developed.

United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust, of Trust Headquarters, Lincoln County Hospital, Greetwell Road, Lincoln, was found guilty of breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. It was fined £1 million and ordered to repay £160,000 in costs.

The trust has also been ordered to pay £3800 to Mr Biggadike’s family to cover the costs of the funeral.

In his statement John Biggadike’s brother Keith said: “John didn’t deserve to die the way that he did. One day I had a brother and the next I didn’t. “

Harvey Wild, Operations Manager for the HSE said: “First of all, our thoughts remain with John Biggadike’s family. This was a tragic and preventable death.

“If staff had received effective training and monitoring in the use of the standing aid hoist Mr Biggadike’s death could have been avoided.”

Guidance on how to safely handle patients can be found at http://www.hse.gov.uk/healthservices/moving-handling-do.htm

Notes to Editors:

1. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice, promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice, and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk
2. The HSE has a legal duty to make inquiries about all allegations or complaints made to it, initially to determine whether there are grounds to formally investigate possible breaches of health and safety regulations.
3. Until 1 April 2015, allegations of unsafe working practices at medical establishments, unrelated to clinical matters, could be referred to HSE. After this date, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) became the lead regulator, including investigating potential breaches of health and safety regulations.
4. Since 1 April 2015, this HSE investigation was conducted as a historic inquiry, as the HSE was the responsible regulator at the time these offences were committed.
5. Further information about how the HSE decides on whether to launch a formal investigation can be found at http://www.hse.gov.uk/enforce/incidselcrits.pdfand http://www.hse.gov.uk/foi/internalops/og/ogprocedures/investigation.
6. Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 states: “It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety.” Further information about the legislation applied in this case can be found at www.legislation.gov.uk/