Company fined for work accident
A company has been fined £5,000 plus £5,074 costs at Teesside Magistrates’ Court for a work accident, it has been revealed.
The firm was sued for breaching S.2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work, etc Act 1974 and r.3(1)(a) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
The prosecution strengthened their case by referring to an industrial accident on 24th May 2008 at the plant.
An employee was working on the mill floor where steel is rolled into long sections and he was attempting to clear a jam in a machine, which usually requires an operator activating controls above the mill floor.
The operator on the accident site was unable to see the employee, so instructions were relayed via a 3rd man using a combination of hand signals and shouting, the employee was struck by moving machinery due to which he sustained a leg personal injury.
An investigation established that relaying instructions in this way was common practice at the workplace, as radios were not always available on the site and background noise made it impossible to use them on the site.
There was no record available of a suitable and sufficient risk assessment for clearing jams and no recorded safe system of work in order.
The business had enforced safe operating procedures to deal with some of the risks, but had no safe isolation system, which had been identified as a requirement prior to the incident.
Updated on 03/03/2010