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Health and Safety News

Occupational health and safety news and guidance

Blog posts : "safe system of work"

Suspended sentences for subcontractors after worker fatally crushed

Photo shows William Ward who was killed in the incidentTwo subcontractors have been handed eight-month prison sentences, suspended for 18 months, after a worker was killed when part of a 33-tonne metal barge he was dismantling collapsed on top of him.

William Ward, 56, from Handsworth, Sheffield, sustained catastrophic crush injuries in the incident …

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Hampshire aircraft maintenance company fined after workers injured in falls

Photo shows an aircraft

ATC (Lasham) Ltd. (a Hampshire-based aircraft maintenance company) has been sentenced for safety failures after three workers were injured in separate falls at its airfield in Lasham – two in the same month.

The company was fined a total of £35,000 and ordered to pay £32,430 in costs after admi…

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Chester dairy factory fined after workers badly scalded

Photo shows the 600 litre tank involved in the incident

A Chester-based dairy firm has been fined £54,000 after two employees were badly scalded when hot water escaped from the top of a 600 litre tank.

One worker suffered burns all over her body and spent a week in the specialist burns unit at Whiston Hospital following the incident at Meadow Foods L…

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Sheffield Forgemasters fined over worker’s cellar death

Photo shows the incident scene

Sheffield Forgemasters has been ordered to pay £245,000 in fines and costs for safety failings that led to an employee dying of carbon dioxide poisoning after the cellar he was working in filled with the deadly gas.

Labourer Brian Wilkins, 48, was found unconscious at the South Yorkshire foundry…

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Neath Port Talbot demolition firm fined after workers injured by collapsing floor

Photo shows a section of collapsed mezzanine floor

A Neath Port Talbot based demolition firm has been fined £30,000 after two of its workers were injured when a mezzanine floor collapsed on them.

On 18 October, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Wrexham Demolition and Dismantling Ltd. following the incident which took place on 9 Se…

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Firm fined over bulldozer driver death

Photo shows the bulldozer bogged down in mud

A Surrey company has been sentenced for safety failings after a contractor was crushed to death at the London Gateway Port construction site in Essex.

Robert Noel Mayne, known as Noel, 59, from Tichfield in Hampshire, died as he and colleagues tried to retrieve a bulldozer that was bogged down in…

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Bradford man may lose lower leg after work injury

Photo shows the incident scene; the metal plates and pallets having fallen in a waterfall effect from the plate turner

A Bradford man may need to have his foot and lower leg amputated as a result of a crush injury caused by the safety failures of his employers more than a year ago.

The city’s magistrates were told (on 1 May) that 51-year-old David Wain, from Holmewood, suffered serious injuries when a 1.5 ton…

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Manchester metal firm sentenced over worker's death

The overturned machine which caused Mr Dempseys deathA metal manufacturer in Manchester has been sentenced after an employee was killed when a machine weighing half-a-tonne fell from a forklift truck.

Bruce Dempsey, 25, from Eccles, was walking alongside the forklift as it moved the machine at Applied Fusion Ltd. in Patricroft when it fell and stru…

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Gloucestershire paper company fined for safety failings

The rollers which caused the workers injuriesA Gloucestershire paper producer has been fined after an employee's hand was crushed in an unguarded machine as he tried to clean it.

The 43 year-old worker received a serious crushing injury, cuts and bruising to his right hand when it was drawn between the rollers of a paper coating machine at Co…

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UK Power Networks fined over worker death

The fire at the Bishops Hall Lane substation in ChelmsfordUK Power Networks (Operations) Limited, which supplies power to the East of England, London and the South East, has been ordered to pay £420,000 in fines and costs after an employee died while working at one of its Essex sites.

Electrical engineer John Higgins, 59, from Colchester, was killed at a…

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Leigh cardboard company in court over crush injuries

A Leigh cardboard box manufacturer has appeared in court after one of its employees almost lost his right arm when it became trapped in a machine.

The 26-year-old from Leigh was trying to retrieve a piece of card to clear a blockage when his arm was dragged under a roller, causing severe cr…

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Leading UK snack food manufacturer in court

The block of compacted waste that injured a Walkers Snack Foods employeeWalkers Snack Foods Ltd. has been fined after a 400 kilogramme block of compacted snack waste fell on a worker, breaking his leg.

The employee was working as a forklift truck driver at the company's site in Newark Road, Lincoln, when the incident happened on 17 December 2010. He was trying to put…

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Crumlin firm fined after worker lost finger in recycling machinery

A worker lost a finger when it was crushed in machinery as safety procedures were ignored at a recycling centre in Wales.

GLJ Recycling Ltd. appeared before Caerphilly Magistrates Court in a prosecution brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and were fined £6,000 and ordered to pay £5…

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Aberdeenshire haulage firm fined after worker severely injured

An Aberdeenshire haulage firm has been fined after a driver was severely injured when he was knocked to the ground and run over by a tractor unit of a Heavy Goods Vehicle.

Ian Mackie, 43, from Turriff, was one of a team of drivers who worked for R & J Milne Limited operating out of its haulag…

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Council fined after power line collisions endangered lives

Council employees, agency workers and passers-by narrowly avoided electrocution or injury on two separate occasions when vehicles collecting recycled material struck overhead power lines, a court heard today.

On both occasions workers for Powys County Council were using kerb side collection…

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Stoke trailer firm in court over serious crush injuries

A Stoke firm, which designs and manufactures trailers for commercial vehicles, has been sentenced after a worker was seriously injured when he was crushed underneath a lorry when the tuck-away tail-lift closed on him.

Mark Dimmock, 28, from Stoke-on-Trent, had only been working for Don-Bur …

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Death of Bradford worker 'avoidable'

The collapsed racking system at George Barker & Co, where Jim Murphy diedA Bradford firm has been ordered to pay £140,000 in fines and costs after admitting safety failures that led to the death of a 61 year-old worker who was crushed beneath an unsecured racking system.

Jim Murphy died from head injuries when the 'A' frame metal racking unit, weighing more than …

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Engineering firm sentenced over severed fingers

The forklift truck which caused the workers injuriesA Skelmersdale firm which makes outdoor shelters has appeared in court after an employee lost parts of three fingers when his hand became trapped in a forklift truck.

PRF Engineering, which manufactures shelters for bikes and supermarket trolleys, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive…

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Nursing home owners sentenced after death of elderly resident

Two nursing home owners have been fined after an elderly resident died following a fall from a hoist.

Annie Bradley, 78, who was known as Vera, was being transported in a sling from her bed to a specialist chair at Harley House Nursing Home on Elms Road in Leicester on 19 July 2008. During the …

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Firm fined after worker breaks neck and back in roof fall

A housing repair and maintenance company has been fined after a Nottingham worker suffered serious neck and back fractures falling 2.4 metres through a fragile roof.

The 49-year-old employee needed to wear a body and neck brace for three months after falling head first through an outhouse r…

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20 Blog Posts