An Essex-based company which sells and services agricultural machinery has been fined £750,000 after an incident which left a worker permanently blind in one eye.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard how the tyre technician, employed by Ernest Doe & Sons Limited at Ulting, near Maldon, was working with a colleague to re-fit and re-inflate the tyres of a customers’ 4-wheel-drive agricultural vehicle. During re-inflation, one of these tyres exploded, causing him to be blown across the workshop, and to sustain severe injuries to his head and to the right side of his face.
Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigated this incident, which occurred on 10 December 2014, and found that the company failed to ensure that adequate instruction, training and supervision were provided to its tyre technicians. The company also failed to identify and remedy unsafe working practices that had been allowed to become the norm at its Ulting tyre depot.
On 19 November 2015, Ernest Doe & Sons Limited, of Maldon Road, Ulting, Essex, was fined £750,000, and ordered to pay HSE’s full prosecution costs of £9,155, after pleading guilty to an offence under Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
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Safety Consulting Services as popular as it was back in 1994.
SCS operation is on the increase with its client base stretching to the counties of Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Essex, Gloucestershire Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, London, Middlesex, Northamptonshire Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Staffordshire, Surrey, Sussex, Warwickshire, Wiltshire, Worcestershire and now Wales.
So if you repair and service anything with wheels ie Cars, Buses, Trucks, Tractors, Vans, Motorcycles or Trailers then simply give us a call.
Let SCS take care of your Health & Safety requirements so that you can concentrate on what you do best.
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Canterbury Crown Court heard how Matthew, an employee of Watling Tyre Service Limited of Kent, was repairing a puncture to the tyre of a ‘dresser loading shovel’ when it exploded.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Matthew was working on his own with inadequate work equipment which was not properly maintained. He was not trained or competent to undertake the work he was told to complete.
After the hearing, HSE Principal Inspector Mike Walters said: “Employees need to be provided with properly maintained equipment and the correct equipment to undertake tasks whilst out on site. Employees also need to be trained and competent in the tasks they were asked to undertake.”
Watling Tyre Service Limited pleaded guilty, at a previous hearing on 29 January 2016, to breaches of Section 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 were today fined £1 million and ordered to pay costs of £99,485.
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The workplace health and safety regulator urged drivers to apply parking brakes and use (or retrofit) warning alarms to avoid a repeat of an incident in January 2015 when a 20-year-old man died.
Road worker Dale Pentney was crushed by an HGV tractor unit which unexpectedly rolled backwards as driver Anthony Steven Smith was in the process delivering materials for repairs to the A21 in Kent.
On 24 May, at Sevenoaks Magistrates’ Court, Smith was given a suspended prison sentence. He pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving and a breach of section 7 of the Health and Safety at Work Act.
The court heard Smith, 48, of Philadelphia Road, Porthcawl, Newport, Wales, was an experienced HGV driver and was in the process of connecting his tractor unit to another parked trailer when it rolled backwards.
Two men working with Mr Pentney were able to jump out of its way but Mr Pentney was unable to do so and was trapped between the two vehicles. He sustained major head injuries and died at the scene.
A joint investigation by Kent Police and HSE found that Smith failed to apply the parking brake of the tractor unit before he left it. He also failed to follow recognised industry coupling procedures.
Smith was sentenced to 12 weeks’ imprisonment (suspended for 12 months) and disqualified from driving for 12 months.
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Derby Crown Court heard how 39-year-old Matthew Lambert was refuelling his road sweeper at the yard of Leedale Limited. The refuelling point on the vehicle was at the rear, and it was while he was refuelling that a tipper lorry reversed into him. Matthew Lambert was crushed between the two vehicles and died of catastrophic head injuries.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the incident which occurred on 26 November 2013 found there were no marked or identified vehicle and pedestrian routes. There were no rules or control of reversing manoeuvres, and the lighting at the site was poor and below the required standard.
Leedale Limited, of Heage Road Industrial Estate, Heage Road, Ripley, Derbyshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, and was fined £300,000 and ordered to pay costs of £50,737.
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Following a number of instances of vehicles falling from two-post vehicle lifts, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) became concerned that some lifts available for sale in the United Kingdom (UK) may not be fit for purpose due to inferior build quality and or design. A particular area of concern identified by HSE was the locking systems used to secure the carrying arms during lifting operations.
The purpose of this research was to investigate whether a selection of typical two-post vehicle lifts forming a cross-section of what was available on the UK market (at the time the research was instigated), complied with the requirements of paragraph four of section 5.9.5 in BS EN 1493:2010.
Only three out of the seven lifts tested met the requirements of paragraph four of section 5.9.5 of BS EN 1493:2010. Of these three, only one (out of five) used a gear and block locking system. The remaining two lifts (out of two) utilised an interlocking circular gears system.
Find the full report here – http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrpdf/rr1030.pdf
This is one of Safety Consulting Services newest clients who have just extended their large factory to build this new and purpose plant which coats all of the metal components for Jaguar LandRover and Aston Martin. It is an impressive site and goes to show how versatile Safety Consulting Services can be working with all aspects of the Motor Industry.
See how safe your company is with a Free H&S Audit!
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This photo was taken inside one of the many Tesco Distribution Depots in which Safety Consulting Services ensure full Health & Safety compliance. In stark contrast the background image shows the remains of Didcot Power Station and what can go horrifically wrong.
More and more vehicles are being fitted with a range of airbags and seat belt pretensioners. There is therefore an increasing likelihood that you will come across these devices at work. Even though these devices are designed to save lives, there is the possibility of physical injury or poisoning if not handled or disposed of correctly.
Faulty airbags or pretensioners that are removed from vehicles need to be disposed of correctly and it is illegal to dispose of any that are classed as UN Hazard Class 1 (the explosives class) as normal waste therefore domestic/commercial waste bins must not be used for disposing of undeployed airbags or seat belt pretensioners.
To identify the UN Hazard Class we recommend you seek the advice of the supplier before disposing of any deployed airbags and seat belt pretensioners. Some manufacturers advise that their deployed airbags or seat belt pretensioners can be disposed of, or recycled, as normal waste; others recommend that they are treated as hazardous waste.
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We wish the great Milton Friedman was still alive to see this quote as we genuinely offer an initial H&S Inspection of your premises completely free. So if you have a business in the Motor Industry or connected to our Industry then contact us today for a no obligation meeting.
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