Tue 27 Apr 2010
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.”
Tue 27 Apr 2010
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.
Mon 22 Mar 2010
Judith Hackitt, Chair of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), blames the media for the lack of school trips and practical science lessons. She believes that the media has planted a misplaced fear about potentially risky activities because of the way they report certain tragic incidents. Around half of the schools in the UK are wary of organising school trips and practical lessons because of increased fears over bureaucracy.
“The general risk aversion and propensity to look for others to blame is bound to have an effect on teachers, if parents have unrealistic expectations of what teachers can reasonably do,” she said.
“I have no doubt there’s a culture that taking a trip is hard, but it’s not as complicated as they think it is. I’m not unsympathetic, and we want to help make things easier” said Ms Hackitt.
Last week at the Independent Schools Council (ISC) Annual Conference many of Judith’s fears were confirmed. I attended the conference and spoke to several head teachers who regularly cancel trips because they do not have time to complete risk assessments and fear what would happen to them if something did go wrong.
A new set of simplified guidelines is being finalised. Staff can use the new guidelines when organising trips. New checklist templates for risk assessments will be made available to schools and will replace the four sets of documents that schools currently have to complete.
”This tries to put it all in one place and is written in a way that people shouldn’t be overwhelmed. It’s saying it is pretty simple when you look at it” said Ms Hackitt.
Mon 22 Mar 2010
The Royal Mail’s fine has been reduced after the death of one of its employees in September 2006. Colin Smith, 57, died at Royal Mail’s distribution Centre in Heathrow, after being crushed between a trailer and a tractor. The driver of the tractor was reversing to line it up with a trailer unit in a loading bay when he stopped the vehicle to answer a call. After the call he continued to reverse the tractor and was unaware that Mr Smith had approached the trailer because he was standing in his blind spot.
Two Improvement Notices have been given to the Royal Mail. The notices require Royal Mail to carry out a new risk assessment for pedestrian activity and review its management systems for controlling access to trailers.
Karl Howes, an inspector for the HSE, said: “This was a tragic accident, which could have been easily prevented if Royal Mail had exercised proper control of vehicle activities at the Heathrow distribution centre. The company failed to adequately assess the risk to shutters working in the yard or to identify and rectify the unsafe system, and this contributed to Mr Smith’s death.”
Royal Mail Group Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching section 2(1) of the HSWA 1974 in court on 10 March. It was fined £90,000 and ordered to pay £42,549 in costs.
Mon 22 Mar 2010
Romtech Ltd, a manufacturing firm based in Cardiff, has been fined £40,000, after a worker’s arm was seriously hurt when it became trapped in a rotating drill. The incident occurred on 2 February 2009 at Watling Street Business Park in Norton Canes.
Steven Jones, 28, from Staffordshire was using a radial arm drill when his right hand glove became entangled in the rotating drill. His arm got trapped in the drill and broke both bones in his forearm and damaged his muscles. The emergency services had to cut him free when they arrived on the scene.
The firm pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulation 1998 and Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
Andrew Bowker, an inspector at HSE, said: “Mr Jones suffered a shocking fracture to his right arm and his injuries may have been much worse if he had not been able to use his left hand to hit the machine’s stop button. The potential safety risks associated with entanglement on radial arm drilling machines have been well known for decades and control measures have been well documented in HSE guidance going back to the 1970s. It is not acceptable that this type of incident is still happening.”
Thu 18 Feb 2010
Mitchells and Butler Retail, a major retail management group which manages chains such as All Bar One and O’Neills has been prosecuted by Newham Council and ordered to pay over £50,000 after a worker was crushed to death in a bowling machine.
Ferdinand de la Cruz, was cleaning a pinsetter machine that had not been fitted with protective guarding at a Hollywood Bowl outlet. A further investigation found that the machinery did not comply with safety standards in the UK or in Europe. The HSE has issued new guidance on pinsetters to the local authority enforcement teams since the accident and Mitchells and Butlers now use bowling machines that have guarding systems, which prevent assess to dangerous parts of the bowling machinery.
Thu 18 Feb 2010
Chromalloy UK Ltd, a technology company in Nottingham, was fined £50,000 after a worker suffered from serious burns.
Paul Gothard, 54, was hit by a fireball after the aluminium powder he was loading into an electric power blender exploded. The fireball set fire to his overalls and he suffered serious burns to his hands, arms and face.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) concluded that the explosion was likely to be caused by a discharge of static electricity, which led to the ignition of the aluminium powder.
Noelle Walker, an Inspector at HSE said: “Mr Gothard suffered serious burns in this incident and he’s been left with some permanent lack of function in his hand. Chromalloy failed to carry out assessments and control risks as required in relation to powdered aluminium, which is an explosive dust.”
Mon 8 Feb 2010
Analysis on the British Crime Survey by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), has found that hundreds of thousands of violent acts were committed against workers in England and Wales during 2008/09. An estimated 327,000 workers experienced at least one incident of violence at work, 168,000 of these workers had been assaulted and 176,000 had been threatened.
Workers in ‘protective service’ occupations, such as police officers, fire service officers and prison service officers, were most at risk of violence at work. Figures showed that 9.0 per cent of people in the ‘protective services’ experienced one or more incidents on violence. Other high risk groups included health professionals and social care professionals.
Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 employers are required to assess the risks to their employees and must implement measures to eliminate and/or reduce the risks. Personal safety training is one of the most effective ways of reducing the risk of violent and aggressive incidents occurring in the workplace and is something you may wish to consider if you are at risk of violence.
Wed 20 Jan 2010
A former NHS worker has been awarded £150,000 in damages after suffering from a nervous breakdown which was caused by three years of harassment and bullying from her manager.
Nanette Bowen, 28, worked at the Prince Phillip Hospital in Llanelli, South Wales. In 2000, the Prince Phillip Hospital merged with Dinefwr Trusts which became Carmarthenshire NHS Trust. During the merge Bowen’s manager was replaced by Eric Lewis. Bowen was bullied and harassed by her new manager so much that she started suffering from stress and panic attacks.
Bowen claimed that Lewis made sexual innuendos towards her and made her complete a daily diary so he could monitor her work. After years of harassment Bowen was signed off sick but she felt that the Trust failed to support her and said the money would never make up for her life being ruined.
Mon 18 Jan 2010
Marks and Spencer plc and four contractors have been accused by the Health and Safety Executive of exposing staff and members of the public to asbestos whilst refurbishment work at stores in Reading, Bournemouth and Plymouth took place.
The high street chain pleaded not guilty to contravening sections (2)1 and (3)1 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act at all three of its stores. Styles and Wood Ltd, one of the contractors that worked at the store in Reading, pleaded guilty to breaching the same sections of the Act. The second contractor, Willmott Dixon Construction, did not enter a plea for allegedly breaching the same sections of the Act for work at the Bournemouth store. PA Realisations Ltd was not represented in court but was accused of breaching regulation 10 and 15 of the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002 for work carried out at the Reading store.
The committal hearing will take place on Tuesday 9 February 2010.