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UK News - Breaking news in the field of health and safety
Disabling injury accident investigation revealed competence
Disabling injury accident investigation revealed competence deficiency of plant operator
A property services company and a self-employed construction labourer have been prosecuted and fined for their parts in an accident which cost a man his leg. On 23rd November 2004, the labourer was injured while assisting a colleague with picking up a 1-tonne load of ballast from the rear of a tipper truck using an excavator. A colleague driving the excavator attempted to manoeuvre the bucket over the bag, but the bucket swung unexpectedly and hit the accident victim, trapping his leg against the side of the truck he had been standing on, forcing him over the side and onto the ground.
Unqualified
HSE investigation found that the plant operator was not qualified to operate heavy plant, including an excavator of this type, and did so without attending a Construction Industry Training Board training course.
At South East Hampshire Magistrates' Court, Willowbrook Property Services Ltd of Portsmouth admitted breaching r.4(2) and 17(3) a of the Construction (Health and Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1996 for which it fined £4,000 with £12,000 in costs, it had failed to ensure that construction plant was operated in a safe manner and by a trained driver on its site; the self-employed site operative pleaded guilty to breaching r.4(1) and 17(3)(a) of the Construction (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1996 for which he was fined £350.
Comment:
"Construction plant and machinery is obviously potentially dangerous. Even a small excavator, let alone a 7 tonne machine, can easily kill in the wrong hands. This is why it is essential that skilled competent operators, whose skills have been verified through formal training and assessment, only ever operate it. Willowbrook Property Services Ltd's owners and management, and ____ ____ will probably never repeat this mistake, but we hope this case will act to warn others of these risks, and prevent repartitions of this horrific accident elsewhere." - HM Principal Inspector of Health and Safety.
