Congratulations to Lee Burden – Nationwide Resettlement Awards 2015

CRS would like to congratulate Lee Burden of Abellio Greater Anglia Rail on being shortlisted for the Trainee of the Year 2015 Award which is due to be awarded at Hotel Football – Manchester on 4^th November 2016. This is the first year for the Resettlement Awards and CRS wish Lee all the best and hope he is the winner on the night. CRS nominated Lee after completing the NEBOSH Full House Course package and obtaining three distinctions, Lee also secured employment with Abellio after meeting one of their representatives on the NEBOSH National General Course held at our Training Centre at Burton on Trent. Lee has continued his learning by now studying for CMIOSH by taking the NVQ Level 5 Diploma in Occupational Health & Safety – considered the best route to CMIOSH.

For more information on the Nationwide Resettlement Awards : www.resettlementawards.co.uk

Recycling firm fined £200,000 after employee struck by vehicle

A national recycling firm was fined after an employee was struck by a 7.5 tonne telehandler. 

Preston Crown Court heard Sita UK Limited failed to provide adequate segregation between pedestrians and moving vehicles at a waste transfer station in Darwen, Lancashire.

As an employee walked across an outside plastics hand sorting area, he passed behind a stationary telehandler. The telehandler began to reverse and struck the worker who was knocked to the ground and then run over by the rear wheel of the vehicle. His resulting injuries caused him to be hospitalised for two months.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuting told the Court the company had identified the risks but failed to put in place suitable controls to stop people being hit by vehicles.

HSE inspector Stuart Kitchingman said after the hearing: “Employers need to look carefully at their workplaces regularly to make sure that pedestrian routes are clearly marked and physically separated from vehicle routes wherever possible.

“The employee could have easily been killed and still has severe mobility problems as a result of the accident. He is unlikely to be able to work in the near future.”

Sita UK Limited of Grenfell Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and was fined £200,000 with £11,998 costs.

NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health & Safety

Saw mill fined after employee suffers severe hand injuries

The agency worker, was working at Brigstock saw mill on 14 August 2014 when his hand was drawn into the rotating blade of an inadequately guarded large band saw.
Northampton Magistrates’ Court heard on Tuesday 6 October 2015, that the agency worker had been working on the saw with another employee and he had been levering the material being fed to the saw using a crow bar when he slipped and his left hand was drawn into the blade. His ring finger was badly damaged and later required plastic surgery.
An investigation by the HSE found the company had failed to ensure that effective measures were taken to prevent access to the dangerous parts of the saw.
Following the accident, Brigstock Saw Mill has installed a protective wooden box to ensure that operators are not able to stand within close distance to the blade of the saw.
Midlands Renewable Fuels LLP (Brigstock saw mill), was fined £5,000 with costs of £876.50 and a £175 victim surcharge, after pleading guilty to breaching Regulation 11 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1999.
After the hearing, HSE inspector Jenna McDade, said:
“Had the company taken suitable measures to ensure workers did not come into contact with the rotating blade, this incident would have been easily prevented.  Had the saw been properly guarded, the agency worker would not have been injured.”
NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health & Safety

Soup company sentenced over worker’s life-changing injuries

One of the UK’s most well-known food manufacturers was sentenced  on 1^st October 2015 after a worker suffered severe injuries while working on one of its production lines. 

Baxters Food Group appeared at Elgin Sheriff Court after a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found safety failings related to the incident. 

The court heard that on 30 January 2014, short term contract worker Jodie Cormack, climbed onto the conveyor belt to clear potatoes into the auger in-feed, but slipped from the belt into the collecting hopper.

His body was pulled into the auger and he was trapped for an hour while orthopaedic surgeons and other emergency services battled to free him. Once freed, he was flown by air ambulance to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness for emergency treatment. 

His right foot was partially amputated and he underwent a number of operations including the insertion of a metal plate and screws. However, his left foot could not be saved and he underwent a below the knee amputation of his left leg. He now wears a prosthetic leg.

The incident occurred within the steam peeling department at Baxters’ site in Fochabers. The department is the initial preparation line for vegetables for soup production. 

The Sheriff was told that on the steam peeling line, the various different types of vegetables needed to be kept separate. To move the last few vegetables of the batch, operators used a ladder to access the conveyor belt and then used a squeegee to push the vegetables over the end of the conveyor into the auger.

On that day, as the batch of potatoes came to an end, Mr Cormack put the squeegee over the edge of the hopper and once he’d stopped the conveyor belt climbed onto it to retrieve the squeegee to push the remaining potatoes off the conveyor belt and into the auger. 

At this time the conveyor belt was switched off but the auger was still running. Mr Cormack approached close to the end of the conveyor belt and as he turned to go back and collect the last of the potatoes his left foot slipped and was pulled into the auger. 

The court heard Baxters failed to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to which workers were exposed when they were engaged in the task of clearing vegetables from the conveyor belt. It also failed to reasonably provide and maintain plant and a system of work for the task that was safe, and failed to provide such information, instruction, training and supervision as was necessary to ensure, the health and safety at work of employees carrying out that the task. 

The court also heard that the company was recently prosecuted for a previous accident in which a worker received hand injuries when his fingers were drawn between the rollers of a conveyor. 

Baxters Food Group Limited of Highfield House, Fochabers, Moray admitted breaching Section 2(1) and Section 33(1) (a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 at and was fined £60,000. 

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Penny Falconer said: “This tragic incident was entirely avoidable. Augers are known to be the cause of serious accidents when limbs are drawn in. 

“Baxters Food Group should have been aware of the risks involved in clearing the conveyor and the precautions that needed to be taken to prevent access to the auger. 

“It is clear that supervisors and management had not considered how this task was being done.”

NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health & Safety

Cheshire builder in court over absence of welfare facilities

A Cheshire building contractor, Phillip Affleck, has been fined for serious health breaches and lack of welfare facilities on a Culcheth building site.

Trafford Magistrates’ Court heard that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) received a complaint from a member of the public in May 2014 about the conditions on the site where work was being carried out to convert a disused NHS premises.

The HSE investigation found access to the construction site was restricted and a lack of both health and safety provisions and welfare facilities. Workers were entering the building via ladders and planks. Work was stopped whilst Mr Affleck arranged for scaffolding to be erected to make access to the building safe.

Dust from sandblasting activities was found to be affecting other workers on the site and inadequate protection had been provided. Workers were expected to carry out tasks such as groundworks and bricklaying but were unable to wash their hands to remove any contamination.

An Improvement Notice requiring the provision of sanitary, washing and rest facilities was issued.

On Friday 18 September 2015, Mr Affleck of Legh Street, Golborne pleaded guilty to breaches of Regulation 22 of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 and Regulation 7 of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002. He was fined a total £4,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,495.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Deborah Walker said: “It is hoped that this case serves as a lesson to all Principal Contractors that they must provide suitable toilets, washing facilities which include hot and cold running water and suitable, sheltered rest facilities for all workers engaged on their sites.”

COSHH  NEBOSH Certificate in Construction Health & Safety

Builder fined following fatal accident

A builder has been fined for failing to ensure the safety of one of his employees, who suffered a fatal accident.
While carrying out construction work in Alne, North Yorkshire, Derek Wensley, a self- employed labourer working for Peter Wright (trading as PW Joinery and Building Services) fell from an unsecured stepladder while travelling from the ground to the first floor of a two storey extension.
Teeside Crown Court heard the stepladder was too short to reach the first floor, which was accessed by passing through a gap in the flooring between joists. Mr Wensley was carrying a bucket of mortar at the time he fell. He suffered fatal head injuries.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuting told the hearing the incident could easily have been avoided. It said Peter Wright had not carried out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment and failed to plan and supervise work at height appropriately.
HSE told the court that had he done so he would have identified failings in the standard of access to and from the first floor and ensured that a safe system of work was implemented. His failure to comply with his legal duty of care to those working on site led to the worker suffering fatal injuries.
Mr Wright pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to a single charge of Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
Peter Wright trading as PW Joinery and Building Services of West End Cottage, Baldersby, Thirsk, was fined £10,000 with £19,000 costs.
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Hugo Boss fined £1.2m for health and safety breaches

Hugo Boss has been fined £1.2m after a four-year-old boy died at one its shops.
Austen Healey was killed by an 18-stone (114kg) changing room mirror, which fell on him at the Hugo Boss outlet in Bicester Village in 2013.
He was rushed to the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, where he underwent an emergency operation to relieve pressure on his brain but died four days later in hospital after his life-support machine was switched off.
Hugo Boss admitted to health and safety breaches at a hearing at Banbury Magistrates’ Court on 2 June for failing to secure mirror.
Jonathan Laidlaw QC, defending, entered a guilty plea for the company to offences under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
However, Barry Berlin, prosecuting on behalf of Cherwell District Council, told the court that the label should be sentenced at the crown court because the maximum fine at magistrates’ court was only £20,000.
He suggested the case should be sentenced in the crown court where the recommended starting point of a £100,000 fine per offence could be imposed or even exceeded.
“Plainly this a very serious matter relating to a child aged four-and-a-half who on June 4 2013 was struck on the head by a seven feet tall, 18 stone free standing three-way mirror,” he added.
“It wasn’t fixed to the wall despite its own requirements. We say, bearing in mind that the injuries the child sustained resulted in his death, that this is a case that should be dealt with in the crown court.”
An inquest concluded the mirror should have been fixed to a wall, while coroner Darren Salter described the incident as “an accident waiting to happen”.
In sentencing the company today (4 Sep), Oxford Crown Court Judge Peter Ross said Hugo Boss had a “corporate responsibility”, and he wanted to ensure the issue went to the “very top of the company”.
He said it “would have been obvious to the untrained eye” that the mirror posed a risk, adding that it was “nothing short of a miracle” that it had not happened sooner.