Businessman in court after worker loses forearm

A Kent businessman has been sentenced after a worker lost his right forearm when it got caught and mangled in an unguarded tyre-shredding machine.
Mark Anton Arabaje, sole director of now-dissolved company Cartwright Projects Ltd, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after it found he had removed a protective guard from the dangerous machine only a couple of weeks earlier.
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Canterbury Crown Court heard that father-of-four Nathan Johnson, 25, of Folkestone, was working at the firm’s premises at Unit 1 Shottenden Manor, Westwell, Ashford, Kent, on 27 November 2013 when the incident happened.
He had been putting tyres by hand into the shredder when the machine failed to grip one properly on its metal teeth. Mr Johnson grabbed the remaining half and fed it in. At that point, his right jacket sleeve got entangled on the metal teeth and his fingers and then forearm were dragged into the running shredder.
As Mr Johnson screamed for help, Mark Arabaje came and managed to switch the machine off and freed him from the machine.
He lost the forearm up to his elbow and needed extensive hospital treatment, including skin grafts from his left leg to replace the remains of his arm and a bolt in his elbow to ensure it remained intact.
The court was told Mr Johnson’s injuries could have been even worse if he had been working on his own that day, which regularly happened in the company, as there were no emergency stop switches within his reach at the time.
HSE’s investigation identified that Mark Arabaje had removed the metal bucket guard of the shredding machine earlier the same month, thus allowing easy access to the metal teeth.
HSE told the court it would have also prosecuted the company had it still existed.
Mark Arabaje, of Gatefield Cottages, Rolvenden, Cranbrook, Kent, pleaded guilty  at earlier hearing to an offence under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. On 17 July, he was sentenced to a four-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months. He must observe a home curfew between the hours of 8pm and 6am and wear an electronic tag. The judge imposed a £5,000 compensation order that Arabaje must pay Mr Johnson
NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health & Safety

Halfway through the season and TEAM CRS Mighty Mini are sitting 4th in the championship

Rounds 7 & 8 of the Mighty Mini Championship took place on a busy Sunday at Castle Combe, Wiltshire. Mighty were first out to qualify Caroline managed a respectable 7^th place on the grid, the times were very tight and Maria Brown who she’d been running with in qualifying was in 3^rd there was just  a third of a second between them in the times.
There was a long wait before the first race which was good as the back box fell off Caroline mini as the chequered flag came out for the end of qualifying, a helpful marshal returned it and with a few modifications it was back on the car in time for the race! Caroline made a good start in the race, at Castle Combe it is a very long run up to the first corner so the 20 cars swarmed into Quarry for the first time together. Penny Jones half span the car as she braked for the corner causing Caroline and a few others to take a wide line to avoid her as she re-joined the track, making a small gap to the cars in front. Over the next few laps Caroline concentrated on putting in clean fast laps and was soon onto the back of the front pack. She spent most of the race happily sitting in 5^th place letting the cars in front fight it out, this played into her hands as Maria received time penalties for running off the track on multiple occasions. She did overtake to sit a 3^rd but a small error in breaking at Quarry saw her drop back to 4^th at the end of the race.
There was only a short gap before the Mighty’s went out to race again so it was a quick refuel and check over. The top 6 were reversed for the second race so Caroline started from the second row in 3^rd place. This time there was absolute chaos as the cars went in Quarry for the first time, Maria made contact with Peter Bonas which left him with broken suspension, unfortunately Caroline was the car directly behind him and ran into him quite hard. She jinked around him and carried on with the race albeit a few places down the order. The safety car came out so that Bonas’ car could be safely removed from the track. Whilst the safety cars was out one of the team members was on the pit wall and gave Caroline the thumbs up as she drove past to let her know the car was ok.
Caroline got a good restart when the safety car went in and started overtaking the cars she dropped behind in the first corner incident and was soon back with the front pack. She was unlucky again when Maria tagged the back of Penny at the Esses causing Penny to spin. Caroline was left with nowhere to go and caught the front of Penny car, it slowed her down but despite the contact she was able to continue after dropping down the order again. A few more overtakes saw Caroline finish in 5^th place with a battered and bruised Mini.
Just over halfway through the season and Caroline is sitting 4^th in the championship and leading lady.
Next rounds 15/16 August at Silverstone

Sheffield cleaning company fined ~£7K for fragile roof offences

A Sheffield property and cleaning company was fined this week (20 July 2015) for breaching Work at Height regulations.
Turbo Property and Cleaning Services Ltd of Wade Street, Sheffield was issued with a Prohibition Notice on 13 November 2014 after an employee was found to be working on a fragile roof with no protection measures in place to prevent them from falling.
The company was then found to have breached the conditions of the notice and had failed to take sufficient measures to prevent workers from falling a distance liable to cause injury.
Dealing with these matters, Sheffield Magistrates Court heard that the company had breached Section 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and Section 33(1)(c) and 33(2) of Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 for contravening the Prohibition Notice.
Turbo Property and Cleaning Services did not attend the court hearing. In its absence, it was found guilty and were fined £2000 for the breach of the work at height regulations, £4000 for the breach of prohibition notice with £853.70 costs.
CRS says "It is stupid that small companies like this one choose to expose themselves to fines as they have. They get nothing for their money. If they had invested that money on proper health and safety advice, they would have protected their workers, and improved the quality of their services. Sensible customers choose quality, prosecution-free services. This prosecution damages the business, and was so avoidable."

Lack of training caused life changing injuries

Essex tree specialist company, Oak View Tree Specialists Limited, has been fined after a skip loading dumper overturned severely injuring a worker.

Basildon Magistrates’ Court heard how the injured person, who was an employee at the company, was working at the rear of a house in Benfleet, Essex on 26 September 2014 when the incident occurred. The 19-year-old employee had only a few minutes training on the use of the dumper truck. He had no driving licence and was not wearing a safety belt when he overturned the vehicle.

He was airlifted to hospital where he was found to have broken his back. He spent months in hospital and his injuries are life-changing. It is not known if he will ever be able to walk again.

On 17 June 2015, Oak View Tree Specialists Limited, of Rayleigh, Essex, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 9(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 as it failed to ensure that its employees received adequate training for the purposes of health and safety. The company was fined £3,000 with costs of £1,500.

On sentencing, HSE Inspector Keith Waller, said: “This was entirely an avoidable incident. The defendant failed to take reasonably practicable measures because they allowed their employee to operate a dangerous item of plant machinery with only the very minimum of training.

Small House Builders To Receive £100m Boost

The Government has announced plans to give small house builders a £100 million cash injection as it looks to improve housing delivery in the country. The Housing Growth Partnership will act as a dedicated initiative that will invest alongside smaller builders in new development. It will help provide money to support their businesses, helping get workers onto sites and increasing housing supply. A network of builders will also be established including experienced developers, who will act as mentors and advisers to those looking to expand and grow their businesses. In the last 25 years, the number of firms building between one and 100 units a year has fallen from over 12,000 to fewer than 3,000. The Housing Growth Partnership will support residential development projects with a gross development value of between £750,000 and £12 million and will offer investments in the range of £500,000 to £5 million for each project. NEBOSH Combined Construction/General Certificate in Occupational Health & Safety

Man breaks legs at dance academy in lift shaft fall

The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) has been sentenced after a member of the public fell into a vacant lift shaft.
Mr Hector Maclean, 23, fell into a vacant lift shaft after leaning on a set of double doors at street level.
The doors were operated and controlled by RADA at its Central London campus. The doors were secured with a lock and key. Mr Maclean leant against one of the doors and it opened inwards causing him to fall backwards through the double doors and into the lift shaft. He fell between five and six metres to the bottom of the lift shaft, breaking both legs.
His injuries have prevented him from attending university and working as a fashion model.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that RADA had failed to carry out a basic risk assessment on a vacant lift shaft at its site with access from the street.
RADA, of Gower Street, London, pleaded guilty at Westminster Magistrates’ Court and was fined £12,000 and ordered to pay £1,266 in costs for breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act1974

Nerves of Steel for our Mighty Mini driver Caroline at Brands Hatch

Rounds 5 & 6 of the Mighty Mini Championship were part of the Mini Racing Festival at Brands Hatch, Kent. It was an unexpectedly hot weekend after the drab summer so far.
Brands Hatch has never been one of Caroline favourite circuits after rolling the car there a few years ago so the aim for the weekend was another couple of top 10 finishes and no damage to the car. Caroline was a little surprised in qualifying as the numbers held over the pit wall kept varying from 17^th to 6^th. Eventually at the end of the session she was 9^th (later promoted to 8^th following a penalty to another driver being under weight) the times were so close that one second covered 3^rd to 21^st place!
The lights went out and the Mightys pulled away completing the first lap in pretty much the same order they qualified in, as the nerves settled and everyone got into their own rhythm little fighting packs of cars emerged.  After a few laps Caroline managed to overtake novice driver Alistair Richards and set about trying to catch Maria Brown.
The field was bunched back up by the emergence of the safety car following an incident at Paddock where Michael Grover lost control of the car and was unfortunately collected by Craig Pendlebury resulting in them both ending up in the gravel and having to be retrieved. When the safety car came in it left a little over 4 minutes to race. Maria had missed the restart so there was a gap to the front pack, Caroline made her only mistake of the race by messing up a gear change and missing the opportunity to overtake Maria.  At the sprint to the flag Caroline finished in 6^th place.
The top 8 minis were reversed for the second race giving meaning Caroline started from the second row in third place. Maria Brown made an excellent start from alongside Caroline going around the outside at Paddock and taking the initial lead. At the same time Peter Bonas lost control of his mini taking to the grass and taking Caroline Gilbert with him,  the pair of them sliding sideways down Paddock Hill. By the time the car was straight again Caroline had dropped to virtually back of the pack in about 22^nd place. She quickly started picking her way through the cars, overtaking around the outside of bend, diving up the inside and sometimes driving through the middle of a pair of cars!
Around halfway through the race she had caught back up to the fight for 8^th place, as she went to go around the outside one of the cars in the fighting pack Peter dived up the inside, he wasn’t able to control his car hit Steve Rideout who in turn hit Caroline spinning her round to face the wrong way again! She lost a few places but quickly got going. Over the next few laps she closed back in on the cars infront re-overtaking some of them again to finish in a hard fought 10^th place.
Going into the Brands Hatch meeting Caroline was sitting third overall in the Championship so following the weekends racing her head was removed from her engine  to be checked. As expected it was fully compliant to the regs.
The next rounds are at Castle Combe 18/19^th July.

Fatal accident statistics 2014-15 (provisional)

Provisional annual data for work-related fatal accidents in Great Britain’s workplaces shows small change from previous years, sustaining a long term trend that has seen the rate of fatalities more than halve over the last 20 years.
Provisional annual data released by the Health and Safety Executive today (1 July 2015) reveals 142 workers were fatally injured at work between April 2014 and March 2015 (a rate of 0.46 fatalities per 100,000 workers). This compares to last year’s all-time low of 136 (0.45 fatalities per 100,000 workers). Fatal injuries at work are thankfully rare events and as a consequence, the annual figures are subject to chance variation. You'll find the fuller history at the bottom of this article.
These new statistics confirm the UK to be one of the safest places to work in Europe, having one of the lowest rates of fatal injuries to workers in leading industrial nations. CRS however points out that every death is a tragedy. “It is disappointing that last year’s performance on fatal injuries has not been matched, but the trend continues to be one of improvement. Our systems and our framework remain strong as demonstrated by our performance in comparison to other countries. Every fatality is a tragic event and our commitment to preventing loss of life in the workplace remains unaltered. All workplace fatalities drive even more effective interventions to reduce death, injury and ill health.”
The new figures show the rate of fatal injuries in several key industrial sectors:
35 fatal injuries to construction workers were recorded – a rate of 1.62 deaths per 100,000 workers, compared to an average of 45 deaths in the past five years and a decrease from the 44 deaths recorded in 2013/14.
33 fatal injuries to agricultural workers were recorded – a rate 9.12 deaths per 100,000 workers, the same as the average of 33 deaths in the past five years and an increase from the 27 deaths recorded in 2013/14.
Five fatal injuries to waste and recycling workers were recorded – a rate of 4.31 deaths per 100,000 workers, compared to an average of six deaths in the past five years and an increase from the four deaths recorded in 2013/14.
The published statistics also include a breakdown by country and region. These are strongly influenced by variations in the mix of industries and occupations. For example in Scotland and Wales compared to England, there are noticeably fewer employees in lower-risk occupational groups, with relatively more in higher-risk ones. In addition, the number of fatalities in some regions is relatively small, hence susceptible to considerable variation. HSE has also released the latest available figures on deaths from asbestos-related cancer. Mesothelioma, one of the few work related diseases where deaths can be counted directly, contracted through past exposure to asbestos killed 2,538 in Great Britain in 2013 compared to 2,548 in 2012.
A more detailed assessment of the data will be provided as part of the annual Health and Safety Statistics release at the end of October.
The history of workplace fatalities in the UK:
The average rate of fatal injury over the last five years has been 0.53 per 100, 000 workers. In each of the last five years, the number of fatal injuries has been:
2013/14 – 136 workers died
2012/13 – 150 workers died
2011/12 – 171 workers died
2010/11 – 175 workers died
2009/10 – 147 workers died