A Hertfordshire packaging company has been fined for safety failings after a worker broke his arm in a poorly guarded mailing machine at a factory in Melbourn.

Harry Bracewell, 20, of Royston, required surgery to have metal plates and screws inserted into his arm as a result of the incident at Ampac Security Products Ltd, on Saxon Way, on 12 February 2014. He now finds lifting difficult, continues to suffer flashbacks, and cannot sleep without medication.

His employer was prosecuted today (10 April) after an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the incident could have been avoided with better guarding.

Stevenage Magistrates’ Court heard that Mr Bracewell was operating a mailing machine that processes rolls of plastic film into sealable plastic bags by cutting the film to size and applying glue on one edge.

He attempted to clean a moving belt on the machine with a cloth and cleaning fluid, but his hand and arm was pulled between a roller and the belt. He sustained crush injuries and a compound fracture to his right arm.

HSE inspectors found that while Ampac had identified the risk of entanglement from the moving belts to the underside of the machine, the area where his arm was caught had not been guarded to prevent access.

Magistrates were told that Mr Bracewell had received training and instruction on how to operate a similar machine elsewhere in the factory. When using the other machine, although unsafe, it was considered normal practice to clean glue from the underside of the delivery belts while the machine was still running. However, this was not normal practice in the case for the machine that injured him – which could have been made clear had he received adequate instructions for this equipment.

Ampac Security Products Ltd was fined a total of £10,000 and ordered to pay a further £2328 in costs after pleading guilty to a breach of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations, 1998.

After the case was heard, Health and Safety Inspector Sandra Dias said: “No matter what industry you work in, machinery should always be adequately guarded to prevent injury.

“It is also important that adequate are provided to employees – especially when they are operating machinery that differs from what they may have used before.” 

Notes to Editors  

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice, promoting training, new or revised regulations and codes of practice, and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk^[1]
2. Section (11)(1)a of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations states: “Every employer shall ensure that measures are taken in accordance with paragraph (2) which are effective to prevent access to any dangerous part of machinery or to any rotating stock-bar”
3. Further HSE news releases are available at www.hse.gov.uk/press^[2]

 A Southampton worker suffered serious injuries when his arm was dragged into an unguarded part of a conveyor belt at a chicken hatchery business in Romsey, a court heard.

Superviser Andrew House, from Calmore, needed hospital treatment and was unable to work for several months after the incident at Faccenda Foods hatchery on 17 March 2014.

Southampton Magistrates’ Court heard the victim’s left hand was pulled into the ‘running nip’ of the conveyor belt while cleaning the area.  He was unable to reach an emergency stop control and a colleague had to stop the conveyor running so Mr House could be released.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigated and prosecuted Faccenda Foods for safety failings after identifying that the dangerous nip of the belt was totally unguarded.

Following the incident, Mr House spent seven days in hospital, required two operations and needed several months off work. He now has limited use of his hand and although he has been able to return to work, still has physiotherapy to help increase his mobility.

The court was told that Faccenda Foods, a UK foods business based in Northamptonshire, had been prosecuted by HSE back in 2001 as a result of an incident involving poorly-guarded machinery.

Faccenda Foods, of Willow Road, Brackley, Northamptonshire, was fined a total of £7000 and ordered to pay £2909.25 in costs after admitting two breaches of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and a single breach of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Kate Clark said: “Andrew House suffered an awful injury to his hand which left him unable to use it for months. It was debilitating and traumatic.

“The fact is that it need not have happened at all. Faccenda Foods should have carried out a proper assessment of the risks involved in operating the machine. That would have identified the safeguards and controls and that were needed and the firm would have been able to put those measures in place.

“The risk to workers of becoming trapped in moving machinery is well-known in the industry and should not be under-estimated, as these incidents account for hundreds of injuries each year, and even deaths.

“If the guards that Faccenda installed after Mr House’s injury had been there at the time, it is extremely unlikely he would have become trapped.”

Notes to Editors:

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk^[1]

2. Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 states: Every employer shall ensure that measures are taken which are effective – (a) to prevent access to any dangerous part of machinery or to any rotating stock-bar; or (b) to stop the movement of any dangerous part of machinery or rotating stock-bar before any part of a person enters a danger zone.

3. Regulation 16(1) of the same Regulations states: Every employer shall ensure that, where appropriate, work equipment is provided with one or more readily accessible emergency stop controls unless it is not necessary by reason of the nature of the hazards and the time taken for the work equipment to come to a complete stop as a result of the action of any control provided by virtue of regulation 15(1).

4. Regulation 3(1)(a) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 states:  Every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of)the risks to the health and safety of his employees to which they are exposed whilst they are at work.

5. HSE news releases are available at http://press.hse.gov.uk/

A waste management company has been ordered to pay a total of £265,000, for safety failings after a worker was killed when he was struck by a vehicle at a Watford waste transfer station.

Patrick Murphy, a 58-year-old father-of-two from Watford, who had worked as a groundsman at the site since 2004, was struck and run over by a JCB loading shovel as he was clearing litter at FCC Waste Services (UK) Ltd’s Waterdale Waste Transfer Station on 17 August 2012. He died at the scene.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted FCC Waste Services (UK) Ltd at St Albans Crown Court (13 March) after an investigation found the company failed to organise and control the workplace to ensure that pedestrians and vehicles could circulate and operate safely.

The court heard that the site handled household waste and material for recycling which was delivered to the site by refuse collection vehicles. The vehicles would be driven across the manoeuvring yard, referred to as “the apron”, to a large warehouse known as the tipping hall. There were also two loading shovels operated by FCC staff working on the site, moving the tipped waste around and it was one of these which struck and killed Mr Murphy whilst he was litter-picking out on the apron.

FCC Waste Services (UK) Ltd, of Ground Floor West, Northampton Business Park, Northampton, was fined a total of £200,000 and ordered to pay costs of £65,000 after pleading guilty to breaching Regulation 4(1) and Regulation 17(1) of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 and to breaching Regulation 5(1) of the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

After the case, HSE Inspector Roxanne Barker, said:

“Mr Murphy lost his life in what was an entirely preventable tragedy caused by FCC Waste Services (UK) Ltd’s failure to fully recognise and control the hazards arising from activities in and around the tipping hall at its waste transfer station.

“There are significant risks associated with operating large construction type vehicles on waste sites, particularly when, as in this case, the vehicles have restricted visibility. These risks are well known and easily controlled using reasonably practicable precautions.

“Every year many people are killed or seriously injured in incidents involving workplace transport, and there is no excuse for companies that neglect this risk. Pedestrians, whether they are employees or not, should be kept separate from these types of vehicles through physical barriers or safe systems of work that are clear and well supervised.”

For more information about working safely around workplace vehicles, visithttp://www.hse.gov.uk/workplacetransport/index.htm

Notes to Editors:

1. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice, promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice, and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk 
2. Regulation 4(1) of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations, 1992 states: Every employer shall ensure that every workplace, modification, extension or conversion which is under his control and where any of his employees works complies with any requirement of these Regulations which (a) applies to that workplace or, as the case may be, to the workplace which contains that modification, extension or conversion; and (b) is in force in respect of the workplace, modification, extension or conversion.
3. Regulation 17(1) of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations, 1992 states: “Every workplace shall be organised in such a way that pedestrians and vehicles can circulate in a safe manner.”
4. Regulation 5(1) of the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999 states: “Every employer shall make and give effect to such arrangements as are appropriate, having regard to the nature of his activities and the size of his undertaking, for the effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of the preventive and protective measures.”

A Somerset company has been fined after a quarry blast sent rocks of up to 15 kilos flying outside a danger zone toward employees and across a public road.

Falling rocks narrowly avoided hitting workers as they landed well outside the designated blast zone at Moons Hill Quarry, Stoke St Michael near Shepton Mallet on 7 February 2012. Rocks also fell onto a public highway, exposing road users to unacceptable danger.

Frome-based WCD Sleeman and Sons Ltd, who organised the blast, were prosecuted today (27 February) after an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) identified serious control failings.

Bristol Crown Court heard that workers acting as sentries outside the danger area were aware of rocks flying above their heads and landing all around them immediately after the blast. Rocks also landed in the processing plant area of the quarry, which is on the other side of a public road.

HSE inspectors discovered that the blast had not been properly planned. Too much explosive was used in an area where the ground was already broken and measures put in place to reduce risks were inadequate.

WCD Sleeman and Sons Ltd,  of Valley View, Vallis Park, Frome, was fined £30,000 and ordered to pay £20,000 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

The court was told the firm was prosecuted by HSE after investigating a similar offence in Devon when they were fined £20,000 with £17,000 costs in July 2013 at Barnstaple Magistrates’ Court.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Catherine Pickett said:

“This was a very serious incident, which put both members of the public and employees at serious risk of being hit by rocks and could easily have led to death or serious injury.

“Blasting operations at quarries are potentially very dangerous. The risks must be rigorously controlled by good explosives engineering practice and in accordance with legal requirements.

“Quarrying remains one of the most dangerous industries to work in with 3,250 injuries, including 27 fatalities, reported to HSE since 2000.

“This is not the first time WCD Sleeman and Sons have been prosecuted for similar offences that have put people at considerable risk and I hope they take more heed of the lessons to be learned.

“Proper planning and control is required at all times in the quarrying industry. The option of stopping and reevaluating the blasting operation for safety is always available to shotfirers, and in this case would have avoided danger.”

Further information on quarry safety can be found on the HSE website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/quarries/^[1]

Notes to Editors:

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk^[2]
2. Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states: “It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety.”
3. Details of WCD Sleeman’s previous prosecution are at http://press.hse.gov.uk/2013/rnn-sw-wcd-sleeman-hanson/^[3]
4. HSE news releases are available at: http://press.hse.gov.uk/^[4] .

A demolition firm in Windsor has appeared in court after being caught on camera risking the lives of workers on the roof of a disused pub.

A concerned member of the public contacted the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) with photographs showing workers removing tiles from the roof with no precautions in place to prevent them falling up to six metres to the ground below.

An HSE inspector visited the site in Windsor on 7 January 2014, the same day as seeing the photographs, and served an immediate enforcement notice on AG Edwards & Son Demolition Ltd after viewing the dangers first hand. The notice prohibited any further work at height until adequate safety measures were in place to protect the two workmen on site.

Reading Magistrates’ Court was told today (19 Feb) that AG Edwards & Son had clearly put the two men in danger by failing to plan the removal of the tiles to recognised standards. It also failed to manage or monitor the roof work, leading to the workers being exposed to a totally unnecessary risk of falling.

AG Edwards & Son Demolition Ltd, of Oxford Road, Windsor, Berks, was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £1,053 in costs after admitting a breach of the Work at Height Regulations.

Following the hearing, HSE inspector Dominic Goacher said:

“AG Edwards & Son put the lives at risk of two workers by carrying out this demolition job in a totally unsafe manner. Anyone falling from the roof of that disused pub would likely be killed and that type of disregard for safety is totally unacceptable.

“The company failed to follow basic safety precautions and heed the freely available guidance available. Had the work been planned correctly, suitable protection such as a scaffold, a fully-guarded platform and edge protection would have been in place.”

Notes to Editors:

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk

2. Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 states: “Where work is carried out at height, every employer shall take suitable and sufficient measures to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, any person falling a distance liable to cause personal injury.”

A renewable technology company and two sub-contractors have been fined for safety failings after a worker was killed when he fell seven metres from a roof while installing solar panels.

Kevin Brookes, 35, from Tamworth, suffered fatal injuries in the incident at Southam Drive, Kineton Road Industrial Estate, Southam on 31 May 2012.

Principal contractor Alumet Renewable Technologies Ltd was jointly prosecuted today (6 Feb) with sub-contractors Midlands Solar Solutions Ltd, who employed Mr Brookes to install the panels, and Rugby Scaffolding Services Ltd, responsible for installing edge protection. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) identified serious flaws with the health and safety plan and the way the work was managed.

Coventry Crown Court heard that Mr Brookes was attempting to retrieve a drill that had started to slide down towards the edge of the roof when he slipped and slid through the handrail, over the edge of the building, landing on his head.

Mr Brookes, who was the sole carer for his elderly disabled father, fell into an immediate coma and died 19 days later in hospital.

The HSE investigation found that Alumet had failed to put an adequate health and safety plan in place. The measures outlined in their plan were not sufficient to protect the workers, and those measures that were in place were not being followed by Alumet or the other two companies involved in the work.

The investigation identified that the edge protection did not meet nationally agreed standards. It also revealed that employees of Rugby Scaffolding Services Ltd weren’t properly trained to install the protection and didn’t have appropriate supervision.

The investigation also revealed that there were unsuitable provisions in place to prevent people falling through the skylights.

Alumet Renewable Energy Technologies Ltd, of Senator House, Bourne End, Southam, was today fined £66,000 and ordered to pay £12,491 in costs after admitting breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

Rugby Scaffolding Services Limited, of 24 Regent Place, Rugby, Warwickshire, admitted the same charge and was fined £60,000 and ordered to pay costs of £12,491.

Midlands Solar Solutions Ltd, of Emmanuel Court, 10 Mill Street, Sutton Coldfield, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the same Act and was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay £12,491 in costs.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Amy Kalay, said:

“This fatal fall was entirely and easily preventable.  The health and safety plan and mechanisms put in place to carry out the work fell far below the required standards.

“All three companies had copious experience of working at height to install solar panels and as such should have been experts.

“Alumet Renewable Technologies Ltd knew that the work was a high-risk activity, and the company should have known what measures to put in place to keep workers safe and making sure these precautions were followed by everyone involved.”

Working on roofs accounts for almost a quarter of all workers who are killed in falls from heights.   Many others are seriously injured and are left with life-changing disabilities. Information on preventing falls is available atwww.hse.gov.uk/falls

 Notes to Editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain’s national regulator for workplace   health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk

2. Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states: “It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety.”

3. Section 2(1) of the same Act states: “It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees.”

A Gloucestershire housebuilder and the company’s managing director have been fined for poor welfare facilities and unsafe excavation work at a construction site near Cinderford.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) identified a number of concerns at the new-build development on Hudson Lane, Buckshaft, in December 2013. They included a lack of hot running water and washing facilities, and an unsupported excavation for a new sewer.

Local firm K W Bell Group Ltd and MD Keith Bell, aged 74, both accepted yesterday (26 January) that welfare and safety standards at the site fell short and the offences had been committed with the consent, connivance or was attributable to the neglect of, Keith Bell himself.

Cheltenham Magistrates heard the firm was building five homes at the site, work that commenced in April 2013 and was overseen by Keith Bell

The sanitation and excavation failings were found during a site visit on 11 December, although it was established there had been failures during the entire period of works to date.

HSE served an Improvement Notice requiring urgent welfare improvements. A Prohibition Notice was also served to stop any further excavation work with immediate effect until the excavations were  properly supported.

K W Bell Group Ltd, of Whimsey Industrial Estate, Steam Mills Road, Cinderford, was fined a total of £4,000 and ordered to pay £765 in costs after pleading guilty to two separate breaches of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007.

Keith Bell, of Elton, Gloucestershire was fined £9,000 with £3,502 costs after also pleading guilty to the same breaches.

After the hearing, HSE Inspector Sue Adsett said:

“The standards I saw at the Hudson Lane development were poor. The excavation work, in particular, was a major cause for concern because there was clear evidence of excavation entry without adequate precautions. The consequences of the sides of the excavation collapsing on someone could have been devastating, and precautions, such as a trench box, could have easily been provided mentioned in the company’s own method statement.

“The welfare failings  – no toilet or hand washing facilities for four months worth of construction work – were particularly disappointing given previous Improvement Notices served by HSE on the subject at other sites.  Construction workers need access to hot running water and washing facilities in order to remove potentially harmful dirt and dust before they eat and drink. It is a clear legal requirement, and both parties should have known that as experienced developers.”

Notes to Editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk^[1]
2. Regulation 22(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 covers the ‘duties of a principal contractor’. As outlined here: CDM Regs 22(1) ^[2]
3. Regulation 31(1) states: “All practicable steps shall be taken, where necessary to prevent danger to any person, including, where necessary, the provision of supports or battering, to ensure that (a) any excavation or part of an excavation does not collapse; (b) no material from a side or roof of, or adjacent to, any excavation is dislodged or falls; and (c) no person is buried or trapped in an excavation by material which is dislodged or falls.”
4. HSE news releases are available at www.hse.gov.uk/press^[3].

A Powys firm has been fined for serious safety failings after a woodworker had his right arm severed while clearing sawdust from underneath a circular saw.

Brian Morris, 59, from Llanbadarn Fynnyd, was working at Stagecraft Display Ltd’s factory just outside Llandrindod Wells when the incident happened on 23 February 2012.

Llandrindod Wells Magistrates’ Court was told today (21 January) that at the time of the incident Mr Morris had finished sawing for the day and his last task after an 11-hour shift was to clean the saw and saw well.

He stopped the machine and opened the door of the well while the blade was still running down and was on one knee blowing air into the well to clear the dust. At the same time a forklift truck drove into the factory and he turned his head to look.

As he did so the moving blade caught the sleeve of his work jacket and cut his right arm. Although he managed to pull himself free, the arm was almost wholly severed.

Mr Morris was taken to hospital, where he remained for a month, but doctors were unable to successfully reattach his arm and he underwent an amputation below the elbow.

He was unable to return to work because of his injuries and has since died from an unrelated illness.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that although the machine was fitted with an interlock that stops power to the saw when the door to the saw well is opened, the saw took more than 30 seconds to stop completely.

The court was also told that a self-employed machine maintenance engineer inspected the saw three months before the incident and told one of the company’s managers that it should be taken out of service or fitted with a brake which would stop the blade much sooner.

Stagecraft Display Ltd, of Esgair Draenllwyn, Llaithddu, Llandrindod Wells, Powys, was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £11,865 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act etc 1974.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Damian Corbett said:

“This incident was entirely preventable. Saws cause the most injuries in the woodworking industry and power-operated circular saws are dangerous machines which have caused many serious incidents.

“Employees should not be able to gain access to dangerous parts of the machinery while they are moving and Stagecraft Display had a duty, as do all employers, to ensure that this cannot happen.

“Unfortunately in this case the saw had not finished rotating despite the fact that Mr Morris had switched it off and he then inadvertently came into contact with the moving blade, suffering a horrific injury.”

For more information about working safely with woodworking machinery visit http://www.hse.gov.uk/woodworking/workingmachine.htm

Notes to Editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk
2. Section 2(1) of the HASW etc Act 1974 states: “It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees.”