Two companies were recently fined a total of £700,000 and a director has re-ceived a suspended prison sentence fol-lowing the fatal crushing of four workers at an excavation site in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.

The Court at the Old Bailey heard that in January 2011 the men were constructing a large steel structure, as part of the foundation for a large Pressure Test Fa-cility at Claxton Engineering Services in Great Yarmouth.

The structure, which weighed several tonnes, collapsed on top of the group. A large-scale emergency response took place to try and rescue the four trapped workers. However, the four men Adam Taylor 28, 41-year-old Peter Johnson and brothers Thomas Hazelton, 26 and Dan-iel Hazelton 30, were all pronounced dead at the scene.

The excavation for the horizontal Pres-sure Test Facility was more than 23m long, 3m wide and 2m deep. The hori-zontal steel cage being constructed would have weighed about 32 tonnes when completed.

The group of men were working for Hazegood Construction Ltd. Mr Hazelton was an employee of Hazegood, while the other three were self-employed contrac-tors. Encompass Project Management Ltd. was the Principal Contractor respon-sible for managing the site, with Hazegood operating as a contractor.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in-vestigation found serious flaws in the planning, management and monitoring of this complex project on the part of Claxton Engineering, as well as Encom-pass Project Management and its com-pany director David Groucott.

Claxton Engineering Services Ltd. of Nor-wich pleaded guilty to a breach of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007. The company was fined £500,000 and ordered to pay costs of £100,000.

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No.81

Encompass Project Management Ltd, of Thetford, pleaded guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £200,000 and ordered to pay costs of £50,000.

David Groucott, a director of the Encompass Project Management, pleaded guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act. He was sen-tenced to a seven and a half month custodial sentence, suspended for two years.

He was also ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid community work with-in 12 months, and ordered to pay costs of £7,500.

The charges against Hazegood Construction Ltd were ordered to lie on file.

HSE Construction Division Head of Operations Annette Hall said:

“Those sentenced today failed the four workers who died. They didn’t carry out their legal duties, leading to the events which caused their deaths.

“This was a long term, large scale and complex civil engineering project which needed to be planned, designed, man-aged and monitored effectively. The tragedy here is that, in the months leading up to the accident, any one of these parties could and should have asked basic questions about building the structure safely. Such an interven-tion could have avoided the tragic out-come of this entirely preventable acci-dent.”

Summer 2017

HEAVY FINE AND SUSPENDED JAIL SENTENCE FOR DIRECTOR AFTER STEELWORK COLLAPSE AT GREAT

YARMOUTH PROJECT CAUSES FOUR DEATHS

A construction company and its groundwork contractor have been fined after a worker was killed by a reversing vehicle.

Exeter Crown Court heard how an em-ployee of Steve Hoskin Construction Limited (SHCL) was working for the groundwork contractor at a construc-tion site in Dawlish, Devon when he was crushed by a reversing telescopic material handler.

47-year-old John Small, was crushed by the vehicle after it reversed while he was walking alongside it. Mr Small was pronounced dead after suffering multi-ple injuries.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the incident on 28 June 2013 found that Cavanna Homes, the Principal Contractor for this site, failed to ensure this area of the construction site was organised to ena-ble pedestrians and vehicles to move safely.

SHCL had also not fully considered the risks to their employees at this part of the site.

Cavanna Homes (SW) Limited of Torquay, Devon, pleaded guilty to a breach of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay costs of £20,000.

Steve Hoskin Construction Limited, of Liskeard, pleaded guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act, was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay costs of £20,000.

Speaking after the hearing HSE inspec-tor Caroline Penwill said: “There were no control measures in place to segregate vehicles and pedestrians in the area where the incident happened. Separating pedestrians and vehicles by introducing measures such as walk-ways with barriers, could have prevented John Small’s death”

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Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard that in May 2016 a teacher was conducting rigging and adjustments to spotlights and cabling in the school drama studio when he fell from a stepladder. A fellow teacher present in the room turned to find her colleague had fallen from the ladder and was un-conscious on the drama studio floor having suffered multiple fractures to the skull, wrist and elbow as a result of the impact.

The court heard that the defendant, Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School of Bar-net, North London, had inadequately risk assessed work at height in its Drama Studio and had failed to provide the teachers conducting the work with sufficient training for work at height, despite these matters being require-ments in its own Health and Safety Policy, and despite the presence of a health and safety e-learning tool availa-ble for teachers and other staff to use, which included a module on work at height, but which was only made mandatory after the incident.

Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School, the legal entity controlling the Academy converter school, pleaded guilty to a breach of The Work at Height Regula-tions 2005, and was fined £2000 and, in addition, was ordered to pay full prosecution costs.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspec-tor John Spence said: “If the school had conducted a suitable and sufficient risk assessment of the light rigging task and ensured that employees undertook the appropriate information, training and instruction available, this incident could have been prevented.”

This case highlights the issues surround-ing the lack of risk assessment and plan-ning in so many activities that Schools provide. The belief that teachers are somehow more able to cope with differ-ent types of working and risk assess situ-ations “as they go” is a dangerous school of thought. Teachers need to be aware of all the significant risks involved in their work and to have had proper train-ing organised by their employer.

SCHOOL FINED AFTER A TEACHER SERIOUSLY

INJURED FROM A FALL

A construction firm has been sen-tenced following the death of Philip Griffiths at Heathrow Airport in Octo-ber 2014.

Southwark Crown Court heard that Philip’s brother Paul accidentally re-versed into his 38-year-old sibling when the pair were trying to move a broken down scissor lift on a service road, while working for Laing O’Rourke.

Paul Griffiths tried to tow the scissor lift away using a dumper truck under the direction of managers. During the attempt his foot got stuck between the brake and the accelerator and the truck reversed. Philip, who was standing be-tween the two vehicles, suffered crush injuries. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that neither worker was authorised with the appropriate certificate to operate the dumper truck, and that the operation was not properly overseen or managed.

Following the incident, Laing O’Rourke Construction Limited of Dartford plead-ed guilty to a breach of the Construc-tion (Design and Management) Regula-tions 2007, and was fined £800,000 with additional costs of £10,000.

Speaking after sentence, HSE Inspector Jack Wilby said:

“This incident was a tragedy for all con-cerned and, as revealed by our investi-gation, entirely avoidable.

Laing O’Rourke failed to address the trend of these workers carrying out tasks they weren’t trained or author-ised for. These dedicated staff needed more appropriate supervision.

Had there been appropriate supervision, then better segregation between Philip and these two vehicles could have been established and main-tained. This case should act as a re-minder of the dangers of using work-place transport without proper plan-ning, management or monitoring of the risks involved.”

INJURY FROM “ONE-OFF” JOB RESULTS IN FINE FOR SALAD

GROWING COMPANY

CONSTRUCTION FIRM HEAVILY FINED AFTER

FATALITY AT HEATHROW AIRPORT

ARKSAFE HEALTH AND SAFETY NEWS

No.81 2 Summer 2017

A salad growing company has been fined after an employee was seriously injured by a chainsaw while felling trees.

Basildon Magistrates’ Court heard that an employee of Growing Green Limited suffered deep cuts to his arm while work-ing with another colleague at the Brent-wood Nursery in April 2016.

The two employees were working togeth-er with one person holding and supporting the branches and the other cutting through them using the chainsaw. During this operation one man’s arm landed on top of the moving chainsaw.

The man sustained deep lacerations dam-aging the nerves in his arm.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inves-tigation found that neither man had been trained to operate the chainsaw, nor were the pair wearing any of the personal pro-tective equipment normally worm for us-ing a chainsaw, such as chainsaw trousers and jacket, specialist protective gloves, safety helmet, safety boots and eye/face protection. There was no supervision and no proper planning had been undertaken for the task.

Growing Green Ltd pleaded guilty to a breach under the Health and Safety at Work Act Etc. 1974. The company was fined £120,000, including a £170 victim surcharge, plus costs of £1,864.35.

After the case, HSE Inspector Tania van Rixtel said: “This incident could have easily been avoided if the company had adopted a safe method of working that did not put an employee in the direct line of the mov-ing chainsaw. It was only luck that the gen-tleman did not lose his arm.

“Companies are reminded that even occa-sional and ‘one-off’ jobs need to be properly planned to ensure the correct control measures are in place.”

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