An engineering company has been fined after one of its employees fell through a roof while installing bird deterrent spikes.

On 13 May 2020, a man working for Craven and Nicholas (Engineering) Ltd on St John’s Road in Boston, stepped onto a fragile roof surface and fell six metres through it – suffering serious injuries to his head and left arm.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that this task was not part of the normal work for employees of the company and they had not properly risk assessed and planned the work at height.

The lack of planning meant that reasonably practicable and recognised control measures that could have prevented the man falling from height, such as the use of purpose designed access equipment and over-boarding of fragile roof surfaces, had not been implemented.

At Lincoln Magistrates Court on Wednesday 21 September, Craven and Nicholas (Engineering) Ltd of St Johns Road in Boston pleaded guilty to breaching Regulations 4(1)(a) and 4(1)(c) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.  They were fined £14,000 and also ordered to pay £6,541.80 in costs.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Tim Nicholson said: “Where work at height cannot be avoided, it should be properly planned, adequately supervised and carried out in a safe manner using appropriate equipment.

“Companies should be aware that HSE will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action against those that fall below the required standards.

“There is a significant amount of guidance available to help companies protect employees when working at height on the HSE website.”

Notes to editor:

1.            The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. We prevent work-related death, injury and ill health through regulatory actions that range from influencing behaviours across whole industry sectors through to targeted interventions on individual businesses. These activities are supported by globally recognised scientific expertise. www.hse.gov.uk

2.            More about the legislation referred to in this case can be found at: www.legislation.gov.uk/

3.            Further guidance about working at height and the regulations involved can be found at Working at height: Health and Safety: Working at height (hse.gov.uk)

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

A manufacturing company has been fined £20,000 after a worker’s hand was partially severed when it was caught in machinery.

The employee of ADA Machining Services Ltd, Ashton-under-Lyne, was operating a Richards 16ft vertical boring machine on 24 March 2021 when he stepped on to the rotating table to check the internal boring cut but slipped and fell on the table.

On his third attempt to steady himself after slipping, his hand was drawn into the in-running nip, and he suffered a partially severed hand. He remains unable to work.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that there was inadequate guarding to prevent access to dangerous parts of the machinery and an inadequate risk assessment for operating the vertical boring machine.

The investigation found that it was also custom and practice to walk on the rotating machine table during operation of the vertical boring machine.

ADA Machining Services Ltd, of Richmond Street, Ashton-under-Lyne, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and was fined £20,000 with £4,952 costs at Manchester Magistrates’ Court on September 20 2022.

The company, which is a sub-contractor in the machining sector specialising in heavy components, had previously pleaded guilty of breaching the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulation 11(1) on 12 May 2010 for an entrapment accident on a vertical boring machine.

HSE provided guidance on guarding these machines at that time so the company had been aware of the risks for a number of years and should have taken remedial action to prevent a second accident of the same nature happening again.

HSE inspector Lorna Sherlock said after the case: “This injury was easily prevented, and the risk should have been identified and eliminated when the company were given advice on guarding this machine by HSE 11 years ago.

“Employers should make sure they properly assess and apply effective control measures to minimise the risk from dangerous parts of machinery.”

Notes to Editors:

1. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. We seek to prevent work-related death, injury and ill health through regulatory actions that range from influencing behaviours across whole industry sectors through to targeted interventions on individual businesses. These activities are supported by globally recognised scientific expertise. hse.gov.uk
2. More about the legislation referred to in this case can be found at: legislation.gov.uk/
3. HSE news releases are available at http://press.hse.gov.uk
4. More information and guidance on work equipment and machinery can be found at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/work-equipment-machinery/index.htm

The investigation into the death of a slinger signaller has been handed over to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Marius Badiou died on 21 July 2022 during a lifting operation at the Gatwick Railway Redevelopment Project at Gatwick Airport.

A joint investigation was launched with and led by the British Transport Police. The police have concluded their investigations and HSE will now lead the investigation.

The investigation will determine if any breaches under the Health and Safety at Work Act have occurred.

HSE principal inspector Ross Carter said: “It is important HSE completes the investigation into Marius’s death to determine the cause of this incident.

“HSE will draw upon the evidence gathered so far and call upon its own specialist investigators and independent support in what is likely to be a complex investigation.

“During the investigation we will continue to keep in touch with Marius’s family as we send them our deepest sympathies at this difficult time.”

Notes to Editors:

1. Please click on the following link to see statement from Thames Valley Police.
2. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. We prevent work-related death, injury and ill health through regulatory actions that range from influencing behaviours across whole industry sectors through to targeted interventions on individual businesses. These activities are supported by globally recognised scientific expertise. hse.gov.uk

A grandfather whose hand was cut off while he was repairing a factory machine has said his injuries are so bad he struggles to pick up his granddaughter for a cuddle.

Christopher Wright, 59, from Oswestry in Shropshire, had his hand cut off at the wrist when he was caught in the chain drive of a box-making machine while working a factory in Wrexham.

His hand was reattached during an 11-hour operation but Christopher has been left with lifelong effects.

He said: “It’s impacted on everything I do every day. I can’t go back to being an engineer, and I can’t go back as an engineering manager as I can only type with one finger. I’m on the sick now.

“The effects are life changing, I’m in pain all the time, it hurts whenever I touch something. It’s not something that gets better. I can’t dress myself properly, I can’t do up zips or tie my shoelaces.

“My wife has had to finish work just to look after me. I have a three-year-old granddaughter now and I can’t even pick her up to give her a cuddle.

“Motorbiking was one of my greatest loves. I used to love riding my motorbike and I’ve had to sell it.”

Christopher was repairing the machine when his hand became caught. “It all happened very quickly. I just thought ‘my hand has gone’. I grabbed my wrist and shouted for help and dropped to the floor”, he said.

Riftward Limited, trading as Playford Packaging, which employed Christopher, was fined £115,000 for breaching health and safety regulations.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) discovered the company’s risk assessment was neither suitable nor sufficient as it had not considered the risks created from use of the machine, including during maintenance activities. There was no safe system of work in place to ensure safe isolation and access for tasks such as maintenance.

It also found it was common practice to bypass a gate that kept people and the machine separated, and to stand within the fenced area whilst the machine was in operation, demonstrating a lack of adequate supervision. Employees hadn’t received any instruction for the safe isolation of the machine.

Riftward Packaging, of Ash Road, Wrexham Industrial Estate, Wrexham pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £115,000 and ordered to pay costs of £5,308 and a victim surcharge of £190 at Llandudno Magistrates’ Court on September 14.

Christopher had worked at the packaging manufacturer for 18 months. He clearly remembers the day he lost his hand. He said: “We’d had problems with the belts lots of times, and it was no different to jobs I’d done every week. The machines have guards around them, it’s a barrier to stop you going in. We’d opened the door and gone in. I was stood between the two arms of the machine. I’d done that many times.

“I asked the operator to start the machine as you had to get the machine running as quickly as you could. The chain grabbed my sleeve. The guy on the other side of the conveyor pulled me out from under the machine. They put a tourniquet on my arm and tightened it with a screwdriver. They retrieved my hand from the machine and that went in a bag with me to the hospital.”

A Welsh Air Ambulance took him to hospital in Stoke, and from there he was transferred to Royal Derby Hospital’s Pulvertaft Hand Centre, where surgeons re-attached his hand.

Mr Wright said: “Now I have some feeling in my hand, I have a little wiggle in my thumb and my fingers, but I can’t pick anything up. There’s no bend in my fingers. My hand is very sensitive, if something is a little bit warm, it feels burning hot, and if it’s a cool, it feels freezing cold.”

Mr Wright said that it was all too clear how devastating an impact failing to follow the regulations could have.

He said: “It was the attitude to health and safety there that makes me angry. Companies must stick to the health and safety rules, they have to be adhered to, they have to be followed. If companies don’t follow them, it’s a risk to people’s lives. The cost isn’t worth it. If there had been a proper health and safety policy, and it had been adhered to, I wouldn’t be where I am now.”

Speaking after the case HSE inspector Sarah Baldwin-Jones said “Those in control of work have a responsibility to devise safe methods of working and to provide the necessary information, instruction and training to their workers in that safe system of working.

“If a suitable safe system of work had been in place prior to the incident, the life changing injuries sustained by the employee could have been prevented.”

Notes to Editors:

1. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. We seek to prevent work-related death, injury and ill health through regulatory actions that range from influencing behaviours across whole industry sectors through to targeted interventions on individual businesses. These activities are supported by globally recognised scientific expertise. hse.gov.uk

2. More about the legislation referred to in this case can be found at: legislation.gov.uk/

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

A Northwest manufacturing company has been fined after an explosion led to a reactor bursting open and ejecting a motor through a roof.

Fortunately, nobody was injured as a result of the incident, which happened at CatAlloy Limited based in Widnes on 3 December 2015, during the manufacture of nickel catalyst.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found how air drawn into the reactor mixed with hydrogen, causing overpressure that led to the explosion.

The lid of the reactor burst open and the gearbox and the electric drive motor, situated on top of it, were ejected through the roof of the building after breaking their mountings.

The investigation also found that a residual product had been left in the reactor – which can ignite when exposed to air.

At Liverpool Crown Court CatAlloy Limited of Moss Bank Road, Widnes, pleaded guilty to breaching Sections 2 (1) and 3 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. They were fined £120,000 and ordered to pay costs of £50,000

After the hearing HSE inspector Sean Bembridge said: “This incident could so easily have been avoided by implementing appropriate control measures and safe working practices.

“At all times during the activation process, a material risk to health and safety existed.

“The defendant had a duty to take measures to ensure that this risk was reduced to the lowest reasonably practicable level.”

Notes to Editors:

1. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. We prevent work-related death, injury and ill health through regulatory actions that range from influencing behaviours across whole industry sectors through to targeted interventions on individual businesses. These activities are supported by globally recognised scientific expertise. hse.gov.uk
2. More about the legislation referred to in this case can be found at: legislation.gov.uk/
3. Further guidance on how to avoid incidents such as this can be found at Reducing error and influencing behaviour – HSG48 (hse.gov.uk) / Designing and operating safe chemical reaction processes – HSG143 (hse.gov.uk)
4. HSE news releases are available at http://press.hse.gov.uk