Construction sites across Great Britain have recently been put under the safety spotlight as part of an intensive inspection initiative from the HSE aimed at reducing death, injury and ill health.
Between Monday 20 February and Friday 16 March, inspectors are visiting sites across the country as part of a Great Britain-wide month-long drive to improve standards in one of Britain’s most dangerous industries.
If you’ve had a visit from an inspector, get in touch and share your thoughts.
A firm has recently been fined after handing over unsecured scaffolding to a client, putting builders at risk.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector visited the site where building repairs and external work were being carried out.
The inspector noted that the scaffolding erected around the building had not been adequately tied, meaning it was unstable.
By law, all scaffolding must be inspected by a competent person before it can be used.
The local Magistrates’ Court was told the worker who undertook safety checks, had been previously been advised of the need to adequately tie scaffolding but had overlooked this advice. He was also fined.
The scaffolding company was found guilty and fined £20,000 and ordered to pay £10,000 in costs, whilst the worker who undertook the safety checks pleaded guilty to a breach of Regulation 28(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 and was fined £2,500 and ordered to pay £2,274 costs.
Don’t forget the importance of carrying out safety checks and making sure these are undertaken by a competent person.
Regardless to who on site is mainly responsible for the provision of/installing of/using of scaffold & scaffold towers make sure you have checked over your safe working procedures and don’t leave yourself open to any sit accidents…
Recently, two firms have been fined £40k following the death of a worker on site.
The worker was erecting a stone façade on part of a building and was positioned on the third level of a scaffold loading tower, which had been erected as part of the construction work. The stone was lifted up to the platform using a telehandler and the worker needed to remove a guardrail so he could unload the stone.
While he was working on the platform he fell from the tower and landed on the ground 6.5m below. He died as a result of serious head injuries. There were no witnesses to the incident, but a single guardrail was found on the ground close to his body.
The HSE discovered there was no safe system of work in place for loading materials on to the loading tower, and no suitable assessment of the risks involved had been conducted. The investigation also revealed that the loading tower had insufficient guardrails and toe boards and neither company had ensured that the tower and access scaffolding was properly inspected on a regular basis.
Both firms involved (the Principal Contractor and Contractor) were issued with a Prohibition Notice the day after the incident, which required work to stop until a safe method of work for lifting the stone had been created, and adequate edge protection was put in place to protect workers.
Last week saw some serious accidents in the Haulage & Construction industries resulting in death.
A lorry driver was killed when two steel safety gates fell off his vehicle and landed on him during an inadequately planned lifting operation. When the lorry driver arrived at the garden centre he removed the securing straps from his freight and began to assist a forklift truck driver in unloading the gates. He directed the forklift driver to ensure that the forks were positioned underneath one of the two stacks of gates. It is believed he then walked around to the far side of the lorry to place the straps inside a storage box, which was located next to the fuel tank. As he was bending over to open the box, the forklift’s prongs extended beyond the first pile of gates and struck the second pile, causing four of the gates to fall off the lorry. Two of the gates landed on the lorry driver, who died at the scene as a result of serious neck injuries.
The Haulage company pleaded guilty to breaching s2(1) of the HSWA 1974 and was fined £13,000. The Steelwork company where the freight had been collected from pleaded guilty to breaching s3(1) of the Act and was fined £40,000.
A construction worker has been left blind in one eye after falling three metres from a tower scaffold. The HSE visited the scene on the day of the incident and found there was no edge protection on the containers, the scaffold had indequate footing, and the ladder had not been secured to the platform. They issued a Prohibition Notice, which required work to stop until it was properly planned.
The investigation also found that the internal works on the project had been planned and carried out safely, with a scissor lift provided to enable employees to work at height. According to HSE inspector, the incident could have been avoided if the worker had been provided with the same equipment.
The Company in question pleaded guilty to breaching s3(1) of the HSWA 1974, and reg. 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. It was fined £7000 for each offence and ordered to pay £8832 in costs.