The Wilson Lawrence Blog

After the death of an employee of North Kent Shotblasting Ltd, the HSE has reminded that simple and economical safety features installed at work premises could make a big difference between life and death for employees.

The statement followed a judgement by the Maidstone Crown Court, after it found the company based in Northfleet, Kent guilty of breach of the 1974 Act pertaining to Health and Safety at Work. A fine of £150,000 and costs of £24,000 were imposed on the company.

The incident occurred in 2006 when Nigel Harrison, employed as spray painter in the firm, was crushed to death under a heavy metal plate. He was engaged in his work of painting the 1000kg metal plate when it fell on him and crushed him to death. Investigations revealed that the plate had not been secured properly.

The HSE found that practically no safety precautions had been taken by the company to protect employees from such a mishap. Risk evaluation should have been conducted by the company more comprehensively to identify such evident risks and to undertake measures to manage them. As the company had failed to do so, employees were left to come up with their own ways of protecting themselves from eventualities.

The HSE maintained that it was unacceptable for employers to show such lack of interest and care for the safety of workers. For anyone involved in major building, maintenance or refurbishment work compliance with Construction (Design and Management) Regulations is compulsory; to ensure organisations are aware of their health and safety obligations and remain compliant with the latest regulations, CDM training will enable companies to more effectively plan and manage projects, identify and eliminate risks and target efforts in health and safety.

Inspectors investigating the mishap pointed out that the operational procedures of the company were flawed and this contributed to the occurrence of the accident. They further revealed that simple and economical safety measures, which were later incorporated into the system, could have saved Harrison’s life if only the company had acted proactively.

The inspectors also stated that with the improved mechanical equipment and control mechanisms available today, there is no need for employees to put their lives at risk while on duty, and that such accidents can easily be predicted and thus prevented.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 8:48 am and is filed under Better Legal, Health + More, Your Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.