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UK News - Breaking news in the field of health and safety
Fatal accident attributable to flawed assessment and systems
Barkston Plastics Forming Ltd. has been prosecuted and fined for breaching S2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 in connection with a fatal industrial accident on 4th September 2002 at its premises on the Wingate Industrial Estate, Bolton. One of the company's employees was engaged on work at a vacuum-forming machine when it activated some time after he had entered it. He became trapped in the equipment from which he was eventually extricated but he died in hospital.
Prosecution followed investigation, HSE deeming that the company was in breach of the Principal Act by failing to:
carry out a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks;
provide a safe system of work;
implement the sub-standard system of work that they had produced;
supervise its employees when they should be following this system of work;
train and educate its employees and managers into the risks and reasons behind the control measures; and
effectively monitor their health and safety systems.
Barkston was fined £20,000 having pleaded guilty to the charge at Trafford Magistrates' Court, it must also pay £5,100 in costs.
Comment:
"The Company had identified this operation as a potentially hazardous procedure and a safe system of work was drawn up prior to the accident. This safe system of work was attached to the front of the machine.
This procedure requires the operator to ensure that the clamping frame will not descend with the safety guard open, and then to press the emergency stop. It then requires supports to be placed underneath the clamping frame.
Had this procedure been implemented, then it would have gone some way to reduce the risk of injury. However it was still not sufficient to comply with HSE guidelines in that there would still have been power to the rest of the machine and potentially stored compressed air. It would have been reasonably practicable for this procedure to include full electrical and pneumatic isolation.
The lack of risk perception through the organisation is a symptom of the lack of training delivered to both employees and managers who were working in this area. Whilst they all received a basic induction to the business, and some of them specific courses in the technicalities of vacuum moulding, there was no specific safety training, either external or in-house, delivered to employees working on these machines." - HSE Inspector.
18.09.06
