Waste company prosecuted after worker loses arm
A waste management and recycling company has been fined for safety failings after a worker lost most of his arm on an unguarded conveyor system at a Kent quarry. Dartford Magistrates heard that a conveyor belt used to transfer waste into a sorting shed was juddering and virbrating, making sorting difficult, after a driving roller […]
Builder fined £15,000 after carbon monoxide death
A builder has pleaded guilty to a contravention of Sections 3 and 33 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 at Haddington Sheriff Court, and was fined £15,000. The builder had been contracted to rebuild the chimney on a property in Gifford but failed to ensure that it was fully cleared of […]
Healthcare provider fined after worker injury
A private healthcare provider managing a hospital in Ipswich has been fined for safety failings after an employee suffered a fractured kneecap. Mrs Shelagh Allen was working in the clinic room of a ward, which was being wet-mopped by a housekeeper during the ward’s busiest period. Mrs Allen went into the room after completing a […]
Workers’ Memorial Day
On Saturday 28th April, unions and safety campaigners around the world will be marking Workers’ Memorial Day and remembering the two million men and women who die every year as a result of work-related accidents and diseases. In the UK over 20,000 people die prematurely every year as a result of injuries or accidents caused […]
Recycling firm fined for subjecting workers to lead poisoning
An Edmonton-based recycling company has been fined for failing to protect employees working with lead. The company had bought and was stripping some lead-sheathed copper cabling from British Telecom after the network began to be changed from copper to fibre optic cable. An investigation carried out by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that […]
Company fined after fatal accident at work
Railcare Ltd has been fined £133,000 (reduced from £200,000 on account of their guilty plea) at Glasgow Sheriff Court for a breach of Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, following the death of one of their employees in December 2008. John Smith, a 53-year old employee of the company, […]
Health Board fined after patient contracts legionnaires’ disease
Lanarkshire Health Board has been fined £24,000 at Hamilton Sheriff Court for a breach of Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, which led to the serious illness of a hospital patient. Over the course of November 2008, the 64-year old female patient at Hartwoodhill Hospital became gravely unwell. She […]
Regulator prosecutes Network Rail for Grayrigg train derailment
The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) has announced that it has begun criminal proceedings against Network Rail for a breach of health and safety law which caused a train to derail near Grayrigg in 2007. On 23rd February 2007, the 17.15 Virgin Trains service from London Euston to Glasgow Central derailed on the West Coast […]
Firm fined after technician’s death at factory
An experienced technician at a plastic products factory in Cornwall was killed after he was crushed between the plates on a machine used to make plastic lids. The Health and Safety Executive prosecuted Curver UK Ltd (formerly Contico Europe Ltd) for failing to provide adequate safety measures. Truro Crown Court heard that in preparing the […]
