WOBO thanks Health and Safety Matters for the reminders to WOBO members and fellow professionals that “construction is a dangerous industry” – all of these incidents could have been avoided!!
A YORKSHIRE metals recycling company has been fined £1.2m after a worker was injured after being struck by a wagon at a processing site.
On 10 August 2020 an employee of CF Booth Limited was walking across the site yard in Rotherham when he was struck by a moving 32-tonne skip wagon. The man was not wearing his hi-vis jacket and did not see the wagon approaching. The wagon driver did not see the employee prior to the collision due to concentrating on manoeuvring the vehicle around some low-level skips which had been placed on the corner near where the employee was crossing the yard.
Following the incident, the man sustained a fractured skull and also fractured his collar bone in two places but has since made a full recovery.
Fines issued after workers exposed to asbestos
A COMPANY and its director have been sentenced after workers were exposed to asbestos and its potential harmful effects.
Inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) visited Eye Track Limited’s site in Stretford, Manchester, and found an uncontrolled spread of asbestos containing materials around the premises.
HSE has recently updated its webpages on asbestos safety and in 2023 launched an awareness campaign, Asbestos and You, which provides tradespeople with information about how to deal with asbestos on a job, and the personal risks from asbestos that still exist across the country today.
Earlier this year, the workplace regulator launched its Asbestos: Your Duty campaign that aims to improve understanding of what the legal duty to manage asbestos involves.
Contractor fined after young carpenter dies
A CARPENTRY contractor has been fined after a 22-year-old man died after he was struck by construction equipment on a building site. On 30 October 2019, Niall McCormack from Kettering, Northamptonshire had been working for KM Carpentry Contractors Limited installing roof trusses at a new build site at Alconbury Weald, Cambridgeshire.
Both the truss packs and party wall spandrel panel had been lifted by crane onto a pair of semi-detached properties the day before the incident – temporarily supported by timber restraints.
Mr McCormack was working with another carpenter to remove trusses from the pack, to then spread and install across the building. As the two carpenters were in the process of spreading, the wind caught a spandrel panel, pushing it against the remaining trusses in the pack. Both the truss pack and spandrel panel fell into the work area. Niall McCormack was struck by the falling material and suffered a fatal head injury.
Companies fined as electrician falls and fractures skull
The electrician, employed by Optilight Electrical Services Ltd, had been repairing light fittings at Expert Tooling and Automation Ltd’s site on Sayer Drive, Coventry when he fell from a scissor lift and landed on the factory floor.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted both companies following the incident on 21 September 2022.
The 52-year-old, from Sheffield, was in the cage of a raised scissor lift approximately 35 feet high when a worker at Expert Tooling began to operate a nearby overhead crane. He did not notice the electrician in the scissor lift.
The crane then collided with the scissor lift, causing it to twist and hit nearby racking before landing on the factory floor.
The electrician came out of the cage while it was falling, hitting his head on the floor and sustaining serious injuries.