Company fined £1.6m following the death of ‘happy-go-lucky’ 24-year-old
A company has been fined £1.6m after a 24-year-old man was crushed to death.
Jack Phillips lost his life on 8 August 2019 while working for Brand Energy and Infrastructure Services UK Ltd at South Cliff Tower in Eastbourne.
Jack had been assisting while temporary Mast Climber Work Platform sections were being lifted by a lorry mounted crane.
The load fell on top of Jack when the lifting sling which was attached to the crane snapped.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Sussex Police found Brand Energy & Infrastructure Services UK Ltd, trading as Lyndon SGB, failed to properly plan the lifting operation of the work platform. The company, a provider of temporary access equipment, had failed to identify a requirement for safe exclusion zones. The company also failed to have a suitable robust system in place to ensure all accessories had been thoroughly examined or disposed when expired. This resulted in out-of-date slings being used.
Company failed to manage legionella risk as prisoner dies
A company has been fined after it failed to manage the risk of legionella bacteria in the hot and cold water systems at HMP Lincoln.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation followed the death of an inmate.
Amey Community Limited has now been fined £600,000 after pleading guilty to a health and safety offence.
Graham Butterworth died on 5 December 2017 after contracting Legionnaires’ disease while serving a prison sentence at HMP Lincoln.
Water samples from Mr Butterworth’s cell and nearby shower blocks tested positive for legionella days after the 71-year-old died.
HSE guidance states any risks of exposure to legionella needs to be identified and managed. Further guidance can be found at: Legionella and Legionnaires’ disease – HSE.
The investigation, carried out by HSE inspector Aaron Rashad, found Amey Community Limited, which provided facilities management services at HMP Lincoln, failed to act on a risk assessment carried out in 2016, failed to put in place a written scheme for preventing and controlling legionella risks, failed to ensure that appropriate water temperatures were maintained and failed to monitor water temperatures in the water system in October and November 2017. This allowed legionella bacteria to multiply rapidly.
Plastic manufacturing company fined after death of young dad
A company that manufactures plastic products for the food industry has been fined £330,000 after a young dad was killed while doing his job.
Nathan Hook, a father of one, was working for Suffolk-based Maynard and Harris Plastics, when he was drawn into rotating machinery. As a result, the 34-year-old suffered fatal head injuries. The incident happened at the company’s premises in Ellough, near Beccles, on 7 October 2021.
The HSE investigation found that Nathan had been on a late shift and was operating a lathe in the tool room to create a work piece for a machine. He applied emery cloth by hand to the workpiece to debur the metal. Emery cloth is similar to sandpaper and can be used to polish metal workpieces. However, it became entangled and wrapped around the workpiece, drawing him in. His sweatshirt sleeve also became entangled pinning him against the rotating workpiece and causing fatal head injuries.
The investigation found that Maynard and Harris Plastics had failed to provide suitable health and safety training regarding the use of emery cloth on lathes. The company did not have a suitable and sufficient risk assessment for use of alternative methods, such as application of emery cloth using a stick.
Engineering company fined after ‘caring and loving’ man killed
A Blackburn-based engineering company has been fined £80,000 after a man described as ‘caring and loving’ by his family was killed after being crushed under a machine.
Connor Borthwick, from Wigan, was working for Partwell Special Steels Limited at its site in Bruce Street when the incident happened on 25 November 2021.
The 22-year-old and another employee were moving a large cutting press machine across a workshop floor when it became unbalanced, resulting in Connor being fatally crushed.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Connor and his colleague were attempting to move the machine across the workshop, using skates placed underneath.
However, as the machine was being lowered by a jack onto one of the skates, it became unbalanced and fell backwards onto Connor, trapping him beneath. He suffered catastrophic crush injuries and subsequently passed away.
The investigation also found that Partwell Special Steels Limited of Stanley Street, Blackburn, had not undertaken an assessment of the risks involved with moving the machine and that the task had not been suitably planned and no safe system of work had been provided to the employees. Additionally, it was found that neither employee had been provided with suitable and sufficient training to ensure they had the necessary relevant competence to undertake the task. A suitable and sufficient assessment of the suitability of the work equipment provided would have shown that the skates used were unsuitable for this work.
Company fined after worker “full of hopes and dreams” dies at wind farm construction site
An engineering company has been fined after a labourer died during the construction of a wind farm on the Shetland Islands.
Liam MacDonald, from Tain, Ross-shire, lost his life on the morning of 5 June 2022 while removing dried concrete from a skip at the Viking site on Upper Kergord.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Connor and his colleague were attempting to move the machine across the workshop, using skates placed underneath.
The 23-year-old was found motionless with the skip’s bale arm pinned against his chest, which led to an alarm being raised at the site.
Colleagues subsequently performed CPR on Mr MacDonald, before administering a defibrillator, but he was sadly pronounced dead at the scene by the emergency services.
Jackie Randell, the investigating inspector from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), found the principal contractor BAM Nuttall failed to secure the bale arm from falling.
The HSE investigation found the company had failed to identify the risks of the bale arm falling and failed to put in place a safe system of work to ensure that anyone using, maintaining or cleaning the skip would be protected from harm
School Academy Trust fined £300,000 after student death
A school academy trust has been fined £300,000 after a 19-year-old student died as a result of a ‘series of management failures’.
The teenager was a Sixth Form student at the school, which is for children with special educational needs and part of the Unity Multi Academy Trust (MAT). He had been diagnosed with Pica – a potentially life-threatening eating disorder where sufferers have a compulsion to eat things which have no nutritional value. He had been a student at the school since the age of 11. Despite a near miss incident just days earlier, the school failed to take action to make sure it didn’t happen again.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that none of the staff in Owen’s class team had received any specific training on the management of safety risks associated with Pica.
The HSE investigation also found that students at the school have individual risk assessments which detail any specific health and safety risks, which relate to them, and the control measures that need to be in place at to protect against that risk. The risk of choking associated with Pica was identified on Owen’s risk assessment and a “named person” was supposed to supervise him to make sure he did not eat anything that could cause him harm.
On 9 January 2023, Owen was out in the playground area with other students during a break from class, unsupervised, and found his way back into school. It took several minutes for his absence to be noticed and when he was found, it was around the side of the building, and he was choking. Emergency services were called, and although they retrieved a ball of paper towel from his throat, he had been without oxygen too long and later died in hospital. Days before, there had been a similar incident with Owen, where he was seen in the playground by a teacher, again choking on blue towel, but Owen managed to clear his airway on his own.
The school failed to ensure that all the safety risks associated with Pica hazards, such as, in Owen’s case, the garden area, or supplies of paper towels, were correctly identified and that the preventive and protective measures including supervision, were organised in such a way as to protect him. They also failed to effectively investigate and respond to the concerns raised by his family.
