Health and Safety Consultants

An annual study of workplace health has found that too many British businesses are jeopardising the health of their staff because they are focusing solely on profit and productivity. The study which was recently conducted by Aviva Health found that the primary aim for 39% of employer’s is to foster a highly productive and flexible team, or maximum productivity for headcount.  47% of employees said that they feel much more tense at work compared to when at home and 19% believe that their bosses create a stressful working environment.

But it’s not all doom and gloom: 27% of employers said that their main priority is to create a motivated team that enjoys working together and 29% agreed that they could do with improving the work/life balance of their employees.

Dr. Doug Wright, principal clinical consultant at Aviva UK Health, said: “While employers are making some very positive moves towards creating a healthy workplace environment, the overwhelming priority is still on financial performance. In the short term, this strategy can sustain a business through a difficult trading period, but it will undermine business performance in the longer term by damaging staff morale and allowing conditions like stress to flourish.”

Pinguin Food Ltd, an international frozen vegetable supplier has been fined after a worker’s finger was amputated when his hand was crushed. The worker was straightening some boxes on an automatic palletising machine when the incident occurred. Even though the machine he was working on had an aperspex guard attached, the worker still entered the enclosure when the machine was running. His fingers got caught between the pallet and conveyor.

 The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) conducted an investigation and found that a number of employees had been given interlock parts which effectively overrode the safety systems in place and allowed access to the enclosure.

 The company was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay full costs of £3,500 at Boston Magistrates’ Court after pleading guilty to breaching section 2(1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

Scott Wynne, an HSE Inspector, said: “Pinguin is a large international company and it is often assumed companies of this size adhere to health and safety policies at all times. The employee regularly gained access to the machinery, defeating the safety device using an interlock mechanism given to him by another member of staff. The automatic palletising machine can carry up to a ton of boxes so the employee could easily have suffered more severe injuries. Pinguin should have had robust supervision and monitoring that should have identified staff were overriding interlocks and stopped it happening.”

A tank fittings company has been convicted of health and safety breaches over the 2005 Buncefield oil depot explosion.

Motherwell Control Systems 2003 Ltd was convicted at St Albans Crown Court. The Hertfordshire depot exploded after a massive vapour cloud ignited when 250,000 litres of petrol leaked from one of its tanks.

More than 40 people were injured and many homes and businesses were destroyed in the explosion, which measured 2.4 on the Richter scale. 

Aston Villa Football Club has been fined after a worker was injured by a fall through a roof during the redevelopment of its training ground.

One of the contractors from Mechanical Cleansing Services Ltd was draining and cleaning fuel tanks on a roof during the demolition of an old building on the site when he fell three metres through a fragile rooflight. The incident left him with broken bones in both his heels and he was off work for more than six months.

Carol Southerdan HSE Inspector said: “Work at height can be very dangerous if not properly planned and although the victim’s injuries were severe, they could have been much worse.“If the internal ladder had been used, then this incident would not have happened. A simple conversation with the club was all it would have taken to arrange for the blocked ladder to be cleared. When working at height all workers must have adequate instruction, training and equipment. It is vital that risks are adequately assessed and managed before employees undertake tasks in hazardous locations. There was clear failure to warn the victim or his colleague of the dangerous condition of the roof or to provide safe access to the tank.”

American Airlines has been fined £70,000 after one of its workers had to have his leg amputated following an incident at Heathrow Airport.

Kulwant Bhara, 45, was preparing an aircraft at Terminal 3 at London Heathrow Airport when a 70-tonne ‘pushback tug’ used to move aircraft knocked him to the ground, running over his right leg.

Mr Bhara who has not been able to work since, said: “The incident has effectively turned my life upside down and has affected both myself and my family drastically in a number of different ways.”

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the ‘pushback tug’ did not have reversing lights or an audible reversing alarm.

John Crookes, an HSE Inspector, said: “Mr Bhara suffered injuries of a life changing nature, which were in part due to American Airlines failing to follow internal guidance requiring modification to pushback tugs. By failing to identify the problems with this tug over many years, the company fell well below the expected standard of safety management for a major international airline.”

A NHS Trust has been fined £75,000 and ordered to pay £25,000 in costs after a mother who had just given birth died when she was given the wrong drug.

Mayra Cabrera, 30, was given an epidural drug in her arm instead of a saline solution. The drug mix up led to medical complications and she died hours later. Wiltshire Police and The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that both types of drugs had almost identical packaging and were stored in the same racking system.

Great Western Hospitals NHS Trust pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

Liam Osborne, an HSE Inspector said: “This was an absolutely heartbreaking case to investigate. Mayra Cabrera needlessly died as a result of comprehensive management failings at board, pharmacy and ward level. Had the hospital done something as simple as keeping these completely different but almost identical-looking drugs in separate cupboards, then Mrs Cabrera would not have died. It is really important that risks are properly assessed and safe systems put in place that minimise the chance of human error.”

The operator of the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) has been fined £450,000 and ordered to pay £43,773 in costs after a member of public fell onto one of its tracks and was crushed to death by a train.

Robert Carter got into a heated argument with a friend in the All Saints DLR station in London. His friend pushed him in self-defence, which caused Carter to stumble and fall onto the tracks.

Staff in the DLR control room were advised by the police operator to check the CCTV to see if there was anyone on the track.  The control room staff did not see any obvious signs to suggest that someone was on the track and decided there was no need to stop the computer-driven train.

An investigation by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) found that the rail operator had an inadequate procedure in place for stopping trains in an emergency, as the CCTV did not give staff a view of the entire track. The operator pleaded guilty to breaching s3(1) of the HSWA 1974.

Corus, a multinational steelmaker, has been fined £240,000, after a lorry driver was crushed to death at its site in Staffordshire. Ross Beddow, 22, was helping to load three tonnes of steel plates onto a lorry when the load became uneven and fell on top of Mr Beddow, killing him.

The firm pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.  The HSE investigation found that the system of work for loading steel was unsafe.

Dr Wai-Kin Liu, an inspector at HSE, said:”This was a tragedy that could and should have been avoided. All the steps involved in an overall task should be analysed to create a safe system of work, and the consequences of something going wrong should always be taken into account.

“Anyone can make errors – no matter how well trained and motivated they are – but employers must develop a safe way of working that helps to prevent mistakes and reduces the severity of the consequences if they do occur. If Corus had a safe system of working then Mr Beddow would not have been killed simply doing his job.”

Tesco has been fined £95,000 and ordered to pay over £34,000 in costs after pleading guilty to five breaches of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

The London Fire Brigade prosecuted Tesco after a fire started at their Colney Hatch Store in Barnet during October 2007.  The store was locked when they arrived and they had to attract the attention of a Tesco employee to gain access to the building.  The fire started in the staff kitchen and staff managed to put it out using fire extinguishers and a fire blanket.  Fire fighters had to ask staff to leave the premises several times.

An inspection of the premises the next day revealed a number of breaches of fire safety legislation. The fire risk assessment had not been reviewed, escape routes weren’t kept clear and many fire doors were wedged open.

Ron Dobson, London Fire Commissioner, said: “Fire safety is a key part of good business management and the general public should feel safe from fire when they are out shopping. London Fire Brigade will continue to take action when businesses, large or small, do not take their fire safety responsibilities seriously. Failure to comply with the law can, as this case has shown, result in a prosecution.”

Research published by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) has found that 1 in 10 drivers in Ireland fall asleep at the wheel.  Almost half of the drivers knew that they should stop, drink coffee and/or take a nap if they felt sleepy at the wheel, but 42% admitted to ignoring this information and just opened a window to keep them awake.

Among the drivers who had fallen asleep at the wheel, one third had only been travelling for one hour when they fell asleep and 1 in 5 only realised they had fallen asleep when they had driven off the road.