Lawford Kidd's Blog

A man has died after he suffered severe burns following an industrial accident at a sewage treatment works.

The incident which occurred in Yorkshire highlights the dangers of working in such an environment,  with industrial accidents in areas such as waste management and other types of work increasing according to provisional figures from the Health and Safety Executive.

Mick Jennings had worked for Yorkshire Water for eight years as a mechanical fitter in an engineering team and had a significant amount of training.

The serious risks to health faced by many workers in Scotland have been highlighted by recent Health and Safety Executive (HSE) figures showing that 22 workers were killed while at work in 2012/13. This figure represents an alarming rise over the 19 deaths that took place over the previous year.

A further 1,914 workers sustained a major injury in 2012/13, down on the 2,215 major injuries that occurred during the previous year.

Employers urged to focus on safety

HSE has published these figures as part of a fresh appeal that calls on employers to ensure the safety and wellbeing of their workforce is a top priority for 2014 and to not put lives at risk.

A Danish company, Svitzer Marine, has been fined £1.7 million at the High Court in Edinburgh for safety failings that led to the death of three crewmen on a tugboat owned by the company, reports the BBC. The judge hearing the case commented that the fine would have been higher had the company not pleaded guilty to health and safety breaches.

The Flying Phantom had been towing a large cargo ship on the Clyde through thick fog when it capsized.

A subsequent investigation by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch found that the tug boat’s towing winch had been slow to release, causing it to be capsized by the boat it was towing. In addition, there was a lack of safety procedures in place for operating in foggy conditions. The tug boat had also apparently been involved in a previous collision in similar conditions in 2000.