News for 2007
September
Music fan dies in alleged moshing incident
VANCOUVER — Vancouver's regional coroner says it is too early to link the death of a 20-year-old man at a Smashing Pumpkins concert this week to any moshing activity that may have occurred there. Owen Court said yesterday he is keeping an open mind until he receives the results today of an autopsy on the concert-goer, who was unconscious when fellow fans of the band carried him clear amid reports he had fallen while crowd surfing during the Monday night concert at the Pacific National Exhibition Forum.
"I would not want to draw any conclusions regarding mosh pits, crowd surfing or any such activity right now. What we first need to determine is why this young person died," Mr. Court said yesterday. The man has been identified as Kenny Leung of Richmond, B.C.
Crowd surfing is the practice of boosting audience members above the crowd, which pushes them along overhead. Moshing is an aggressive form of dance in which fans, usually close to the stage, push or slam into each other. Laura Ballance, a spokeswoman for the PNE, said two people carried the man off the floor of the concert at the fair's forum building. There were about 3,600 people at the concert.
Security staff and paramedics began first aid, but were unable to revive the unidentified man, who was taken to St. Paul's Hospital. He was pronounced dead there. Although crowd surfing and moshing are discouraged, Ms. Ballance said they are a reality of concert-going and that there was some going on at the Pumpkins show.
"This is universal at these shows. We try to deal with it as best as we can," she said. She said the incident has been traumatic for staff, and is a tragedy for the concert-goer's family. "For a young man who came to enjoy a night of music not to go home is incredibly sad," she said.
At a Smashing Pumpkins concert in Dublin in 1996, a 17-year-old girl was crushed and later died when the crowd surged to the front of the stage and began surfing. The band stopped the show twice to lift people to safety while Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan told the crowd that people were being hurt. The band released a statement of condolence yesterday.
"The Smashing Pumpkins were deeply saddened to learn about the passing of a young man who attended their Vancouver show Monday night," the statement said. "As they and everyone else await news from the investigation into the nature of his passing, the band want to express their sincerest condolences to his family and friends."
Concert promoters also issued a statement yesterday:"We have heard preliminary reports that a patron had a medical emergency at the PNE Forum on Monday evening and was later pronounced dead at St. Paul's hospital," said John Vlautin, vice-president of communications for concert promotion company Live Nation. "We are currently awaiting an official report from local authorities. We extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the deceased."
Highway Code changes target smoking drivers
Drivers who smoke at the wheel could face prosecution under changes to the Highway Code. Lighting-up at the wheel has been added to the list of "distractions" which police and lawyers can cite in court when seeking a conviction for a traffic offence.
It joins eating and drinking, "inserting a cassette or CD or tuning a radio", "arguing with your passengers or other road users", trying to read maps, and even playing loud music - most, if not all, of which have featured in successful prosecutions.
High-profile cases have involved motorists eating apples, Kit-Kats and sausage rolls. Up to one in four UK adults smoke, which could mean more than eight million of the nation's 33 million motorists are at risk.
Brian James, road traffic chairman of the Magistrates Association, said that although the code carries no legal force, failure to observe its advice could be used as evidence that an offence had been committed.
IOSH endorses drink & drugs testing at work
The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) has given its support to employers who conduct “responsible” work-based drink and drug tests, as part of overall prevention policies which include education, training and support. Employers have a duty to look after the health and safety of all workers and also to protect people from the drink-or drug-related underperformance of their employees.
Ray Hurst, IOSH President Elect, said: “Employers and workers can potentially benefit from having ‘alcohol and drugs’ policies in place and access to support. Workplace drink and drug testing has been a controversial subject in some quarters, but we believe it can be a reasonable way forward, particularly where safety critical activities are involved or there’s evidence of possible abuse. We’d add that employers need to act responsibly and with sensitivity about this and to have employee consent."
UK studies show as many as 29% of employees under the age of 30 reported using drugs in the previous year. The HSE estimates that alcohol alone causes 3-5% of all absences from work, equivalent to around 8 -14 million lost working days each year. Even small amounts of alcohol will increase the risks of accidents in safety sensitive work, such as driving or operating machinery. It can also reduce performance, damage customer relations and cause resentment among employees who have to cover for colleagues.
Hurst added: “We would urge any employers who believe their organisations may have drink or drug problems to encourage workers to come forward for confidential help and support. We think this will be good for the health and safety of employees, their colleagues and the public and also, good for business.”
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has just announced the results of a survey of 500 organisations. The CIPD says four out of 10 employers regard alcohol misuse as a significant cause of worker absenteeism. IOSH’s comments follow the announcement that Oadby and Wigston Borough Council in Leicestershire has become one of the first English local authorities to introduce testing for safety critical jobs.
Drowning? Don't call the emergency services
The emergency services are being told not to attempt to save drowning people because of health and safety restrictions, it has emerged. Amid a growing row over the failure of two police support officers to try to save a boy from drowning, both the police and the fire service disclosed this weekend that their frontline staff are instructed not to enter the water in case they put themselves in danger.
Officers are no longer required to be trained in swimming or lifesaving. One police force closed its training pool five years ago for health and safety reasons after an accident and it has not reopened. An inquest last week heard how two police community support officers (PCSOs) had stood by while a 10-year-old boy drowned in a pond in Wigan. Senior officers with the Greater Manchester force, which employed them, said they acted “correctly”.
The boy, Jordon Lyon, died despite a fully qualified police officer subsequently plunging into the water in an attempt to rescue him. His force made it clear this weekend that the officer was acting on his own volition and contrary to advice. The case has ignited a debate over whether PCSOs, who receive only a few weeks training and do not have full police powers, should be scrapped.
Ann Widdecombe, Conservative MP for Maidstone and the Weald and former Home Office minister, said: “In the last decade we really have got so bogged down in the compensation culture and procedures and fear of being sued that we’ve lost sight of the bigger picture completely.
“It’s barmy, we’ve lost sight of what the emergency services are for. They are there to help people. I am quite emotionally angry about this. Damn being a PCSO, what about being a human being? For the senior officer to say this was appropriate is unbelievable.”
Yesterday, David Blunkett, who introduced PCSOs as home secretary, said he would have hoped that they would have let basic human concern for others override instructions not to enter the water. “What was appropriate in these circumstances would be appropriate for PCSOs as human beings,” he said. However, Greater Manchester police indicated that the PCSOs, a man and a woman, might not even have known how to swim. PCSOs are not required to know how to swim when they join any force and Manchester police said it did not train them to do so.
“They are not trained to swim and they don’t need to be able to swim to be a PCSO in Manchester,” said a spokeswoman, who refused to confirm whether the two officers could swim. The situation with fully trained police officers is similar. The spokeswoman said: “The officers are advised not to go into the water. They are not trained in water rescue.”
Officers like Sergeant Craig Lippitt, who attempted to rescue Jordon by stripping off and diving in of his own volition, were acting against instructions, although they would not be disciplined for rescuing someone, the spokeswoman said. Firefighters who attempt the same are not necessarily so fortunate. In March a 42-year-old firefighter, Tam Brown, saved a woman in the River Tay. He was later informed he could face disciplinary action.
Roddy Robertson, executive council member of the Scottish Fire Brigades Union, said most firefighters had absolutely no training in rescuing drowning people. “We don’t think the responsibility lies with us, we aren’t trained and we aren’t funded. We think it lies with the police but we don’t know if they are funded for it,” he said.
If a force decides to train its officers in water rescue, there are three gradings of competence. Level one involves not entering the water but throwing a line to the victim from dry land; level two entails wading out attached to a harness; and level three deals with rescues in fast running water.
“Less than 10% of staff in Scotland are trained to level one or above,” said Robertson. Training is thought to be equally patchy in England. Duncan Milligan, spokesman for the Fire Brigades Union, said: “It varies from fire authority to fire authority whether they have people trained to carry out water rescues.”
Firefighters untrained in water rescue would almost certainly attempt to help despite the official advice because of their innate desire to save people, he said. “It is what rescuers call the moral dilemma, in other words when life is threatened to a member of the public, do they try and effect a rescue whether or not they have the training and equipment to carry it out, thereby risking their own lives?”
Lippitt evidently had no problem wrestling with the “moral dilemma”. By the time he arrived at the pond where Jordon had got into trouble while trying to rescue his eight-year-old stepsister Bethany, the boy was submerged. The two PCSOs had arrived some time earlier but not attempted any kind of rescue. Anthony Ganderton, Jordon’s stepfather, who also dived in after arriving at the scene, said: “The proper police officer did a brilliant job when he arrived. He didn’t hesitate, he was straight in. But the other two were there before him. Why didn’t they do something? It might have made the difference for Jordon.”
Jordon had been playing at the pond, a flooded mine shaft, with Bethany and his younger brothers. Two fishermen, John Collinson and Bert Wright, noticed that Bethany and Jordon were in the water, with the girl being held up by her brother, who was already submerged. Wright went in up to his chest and tried to reach Bethany with his rod. When it broke he managed to grab the girl and pull her to safety, despite going under the water himself at one point.
They alerted the emergency services, but the first arrivals were the two bike-riding PCSOS who “just stood there”, according to Collinson, before Lippitt arrived. The Manchester force said Jordon would have been beyond help by the time the PCSOs arrived, since he had been submerged for 10 or 15 minutes.
Assistant Chief Constable Dave Thompson said: “The two PCSOs involved did not stand by and watch Jordon die. They acted correctly and I fully support the actions they took. By the time they arrived, Jordan had disappeared under the water. He had been under the water for some time and there was no indication as to where he was in the lake.”
According to the rulebook, Thompson is correct. Under guidance from the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), constables, let alone PCSOs, are advised not even to enter the water if they cannot see the person who is in trouble. “You may end up with another serious situation and another person drowning,” said an Acpo spokesman.
Rescuing people drowning is undoubtedly dangerous. In 1999 Paul Metcalfe, a Bury firefighter, died after trying to retrieve a drowning teenager from a pond. Untrained in water rescues and ill-equipped, he went into the water with a line but succumbed to hypothermia. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) later decided to prosecute the Manchester fire authority.
But while Manchester fire and rescue services are now better equipped at water rescuing than some other brigades, the general reaction across the country appears to have been to tell firefighters to take no chances, and that attitude has spread to the police. In July this year, the Metropolitan police were fined £75,000 and ordered to pay £50,000 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching health and safety laws after two 14-year-old boys, Gameli Akuklu and William Kadama, died at a children’s event in 2002 in the swimming pool at the force’s training college in Hendon, north London.
Brian Paddick, who retired from the Met in May as a deputy assistant commissioner, said: “At that time all recruits were trained to swim and, when they could, they were trained in lifesaving. As a result of this incident, the then commissioner, John Stevens, ordered the pool to be filled in. Since then, officers have not been trained in swimming or lifesaving.” Paddick, now running as the Liberal Democrat candidate for London mayor, said the approach of the police nationally to health and safety had also been shaken by the death of Kulwant Sidhu, an officer who fell to his death while chasing a suspect across a roof.
The HSE brought a prosecution which, although it failed, cost £3m and saw Stevens and his predecessor, Lord Condon, brought before the Old Bailey. “They were prosecuted because they had not instructed officers not to risk their lives operating at height,” said Paddick. “That now extends to forces telling police community support officers not to get involved in emergencies or in violent situations. They are told to withdraw and call the police.”
Paddick said that officers in the Met were supposed to call for back-up from the fire brigade or a lifeboat if they encountered someone drowning, but he said most had the “self-confidence” to ignore the rules if a life was in danger.” He added: “Community support officers do not have that self-confidence, and standing on the shore watching is just one example of that.”
Company fined for loading vehicle accident
A Merseyside company has been fined and ordered to pay legal costs totaling £110,000 after a member of staff was killed in an accident involving a wheeled loading vehicle. Grundy and Co Excavations Ltd has been fined £100,000 and ordered to pay £9,034 costs by Warrington Crown Court after pleading guilty to a charge under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, Section 2 (1), failing to ensure the safety of an employee by the provision of safe working systems.
The court heard that employee Joshua Beswick died on 1 September 2004 while walking across the company's yard at Ditton Road, Widnes. The company reclaims building materials for the construction industry. The resulting fine from the accident has sparked the HSE into warning employers about the dangers of moving vehicles in the workplace.
HSE Inspector John McGrellis said: "Joshua Beswick, a 20-year-old labourer was killed instantly when he was struck by a wheeled loader. This was a totally avoidable accident, had safe-working systems been in place. Every effort needs to be made to separate vehicles and pedestrians to avoid tragic consequences. Where vehicles and pedestrians use the same routes they should be separated, with appropriate crossing points clearly marked and signposted where necessary.”
HSE statistics show that 2006/07 has already seen 30 fatalities in the workplace caused by employees being struck by vehicles.
Company fined for crane death
Industria Armamento Meridionale has been fined £75,000 and ordered to pay costs of £25,000 after one of its workers fell to his death in September 2004. Aniello D'Urzo fell approximately 12m while painting the crane of a ship in a dry dockyard in Falmouth.
He had been seated in a bosun's chair supported by a rope at the time of the accident, but suffered fatal injuries when the rope parted and he, along with the chair, plummeted to the deck.
The subsequent investigation found that the company's safety management system lacked specific detail about working at height and failed to ensure that equipment used was in good condition. The rope used to support the bosun's chair was in poor condition, showing signs of abrasion and degradation.
Industria Armamento Meridionale trading as the Grimaldi Group, pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 at Truro Crown Court.
New provisions on road safety come into force
Tough new penalties for drivers come into force this week, underlining the importance of companies checking the validity of driving licenses of all employees. The latest measures under the Road Safety Act 2006 include the penalty for drivers failing to provide information about the identity of a driver increasing from three penalty points to six.
Jason Francis, who is Managing Director of fleet software and risk management company Jaama, says the tougher penalties concerning driver identification could result in employees being banned from driving after just two offences.
He said: “The chances of at-work drivers having points on their licence is continually increasing. Most employers assume that if a member of staff or a new employee has a driving licence the individual can legally drive. That is not always the case. Driving licences of prospective employees should be checked against the DVLA database at the recruitment stage and a reporting system to check the licences of existing employees is essential.”
Employers can gain fleet management software that includes a direct link to the DVLA database so licences can be checked automatically.
Francis continues: “Having undertaken the DVLA check many companies use the reports received as the trigger for additional risk assessments and driver training, particularly in the case of employees who already have points on their licence.”
The measures introduced under the Road Safety Act 2006 mean that:
- The maximum fine for careless or inconsiderate driving is doubling to £5,000.
- A person using a vehicle in a dangerous condition for the second time in four years will be disqualified from driving for not less than six months.
- The maximum penalty for failing to stop a vehicle operated mechanically, if requested to by a police officer will increase from £1,000 to £5,000.
- The maximum fine for not ensuring that children in the rear seat of vehicles are wearing seat belts will increase from £200 - £500.
- Any penalty points received for failing to allow a sample to be subjected to a laboratory test will now remain on a licence for 11 years instead of four.
Foreman fined for dumper truck death
Paul Nolan, site foreman, and employee of A&A Building services has been found guilty of breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HSWA) after a worker was killed by a nine-tonne dumper truck. However, it seems Nolan was lucky to avoid far more serious charges after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) pursued a manslaughter charge against him.
Legal proceedings were brought after Alexander Hayden was killed when a dumper truck that he was driving overran the edge of an embankment. In trying to jump clear Hayden sustained extensive injuries. He was crushed by the toppled truck and was pronounced dead at the scene, in Stoke-on-Trent on 31 August 2005.
The court heard that Hayden had only been driving the nine-tonne truck for two months, during which time he had been involved in two other accidents and had not received the required training. Stafford Crown Court found Nolan not guilty of the CPS manslaughter charge but guilty of a charge under the HSWA. He was fined £5,000 to be paid within 28 days or face three months’ imprisonment.
Setting the fine the Judge addressed Nolan saying that: "You were responsible for the day-to-day running of the site and showed a complete disregard for the safety of the workers working under you; you thought you knew best… but you didn't. You were failed by your employers but you failed Alex Hayden."
Darren Barrie Atkins, a Director of A&A Building Services Ltd, was also found guilty of breaching HSWA, by failing to ensure the safety of his employees. He was fined £15,000, to be paid within three months or face nine months’ imprisonment.
To Atkins the Judge said: "You were the director responsible for health and safety but you did next to nothing about health and safety, ignored clear warning bells, fell very short of what was expected and there was a high degree of neglect."
The company had already pleaded guilty, at an earlier hearing, to the health and safety breaches; therefore A&A Building Services Ltd was fined £55,000.
Fire at U.S. music festival injures four
Saturday, September 15, 2007. Two Austin City Limits Music Festival service employees were critically injured in a fire Friday afternoon at Zilker Park during the first of three days of concerts. They were flown to the burn unit of Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, while two other employees hurt in the fire were treated for lesser injuries at Brackenridge Hospital.
As the smoke rose, fans near the WaMu and AT&T stages cleared out. An EMS official said the response was as 'good as could be expected' with such a large crowd. Sending a shock wave through an otherwise peaceful and well-attended event, a column of black smoke billowed above the northeast side of the festival grounds at 2:30 p.m.
The fire apparently started in a recreational vehicle, which was parked in a gated service area, and spread to two 18-wheelers. All the vehicles were behind fencing separating the stages and music fans from service areas between the WaMu and AT&T stages. To date, the names of the four injured employees had not been made public. The cause of the fire was not immediately known.
Later in the night, a second fire started on the AT&T stage when a speaker caught fire, Austin Fire Department officials said. The fire was small and stagehands put it out with a fire extinguisher before fire officials arrived on the scene, said Palmer Buck, a battalion chief with the department. No injuries were reported.
In the earlier incident, Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services officer Mike Elliott said two people heard a noise in an RV parked in the service area and that when they opened the door of the vehicle, they were engulfed in flames. He said it apparently was a flash fire and not an explosion. The conflagration turned into a guessing game for the thousands of fans who were on the concert grounds at midday. They weren't sure what was burning, but many surmised it was one of the concession stands.
"Around 2:30, I heard some popping noises," said Courtney Powell, who was watching Pete Yorn on the AT&T stage. "You'd see a little smoke, then two cops went running in that direction. It all took place in a working area for employees only in the back perimeter," said Troy Officer, emergency services coordinator for the festival. "No patrons were ever in danger. The crowd was great, assisting officers setting up emergency tape. The immediate area around the fire was cleared within minutes."
Three fire engines and EMS crews reached the scene near the "Town Lake Tavern" beverage area on Lou Neff Road, which was closed for use as a service area. Austin Fire Department spokeswoman Michelle DeCrane said that emergency personnel arrived six minutes after the first unit was assigned and nine minutes after the first 911 call was received. A hazardous-materials team also arrived on the scene and set up monitors, but a slight wind from the south shifted the smoke away from the audience. Crowds cleared a path on the service road for the fire trucks.
Organizers briefly stopped the music being played by Yorn on the AT&T Stage and cleared half the area in front of the stage. The Barton Springs Road entrance had been packed with arriving fans when the fire broke out. It was taking about 20 minutes to get into concert area at that time, and the lines did not slow after the smoke was spotted. Elliott said that although music fans were drawn to the area of the fire, "the crowds obeyed extremely well" when told to move back.
He said planning by all the safety and security agencies involved enabled the response to be as "good as could be expected" considering the tens of thousands of people on the grounds. By 3:10 p.m., police tape had been removed from most of the scene, and all the music had resumed. While the fire interrupted Yorn's set, music continued on the seven other stages around the Zilker Park soccer fields. Many fans were just arriving to catch Crowded House or Joss Stone on two of the bigger stages.
No crowd estimates were available, but festival organizers expected 65,000 on the grounds before Björk's closing set at 8:30 p.m. Blue skies dominated the afternoon as temperatures reached the mid-90s. Festival-goers who walked at midday to the park through South Austin neighborhoods and along Barton Springs Road from downtown got to the gates dripping with sweat and drinking water, which was sold along the roadways by homeowners and other vendors.
The festival continued with headliners Arcade Fire and Muse.
BA fuel fine irks ISOH
British Airways was fined £121.5m for illegally fixing fuel-surcharges this week; however, the average fine for health and safety offences involving death is only £43,000, leading to complaints that the fines handed out by the courts for health and safety offences are too minimal in comparison. The Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) has drawn attention to the statistics in response to the British Airways case to highlight the stark contrast between the fines for financial irregularities and the fines for health and safety.
The biggest ever fine in the UK for a health and safety offence was £15m, which was handed out to Transco in 2005 over the Larkhall explosion that killed a family of four in 1999. In England and Wales the biggest fine was £7.5m, which was given to Balfour Beatty after four people died in the Hatfield rail crash.
In the UK the average fine for health and safety offences in the crown court, where unlimited fines are available, is roughly £33,000. In the magistrate’s courts, where the maximum fine is £20,000, the average fine is roughly £4,000.
Lisa Fowlie, President of IOSH, says: “While price-fixing is a very serious offence, we can’t understand how this offence is more than eight times more serious than killing a family of four, and more than 16 times more serious than a rail crash that claimed four lives. We hope that with the new Corporate Manslaughter and Homicide Act coming into force, that this disparity between the most serious health and safety offences and financial offences like this one committed by BA will shrink.
"But we need the courts to send the right message – that killing people is at least as serious as financial irregularities – if we’re to improve the UK’s health and safety record. 241 workers died in 2006/07, but 241 fines of £43,000 is only just over £10 million. Such a great disparity cannot be justified. The punishment needs to fit the crime.”
Training scheme for green driving announced
Secretary of State for Transport, Ruth Kelly, has announced an extra £1.2m to train drivers in greener, safer driving techniques. Followed a successful pilot project, The Safe and Fuel Efficient Drivers (SAFED) Scheme was launched in 2006 and is aiming to encourage driving techniques that save fuel, thereby cutting costs and CO2 emissions. Since its launch, the Department for Transport has invested nearly £2.2million in the scheme.
The training has been immensely popular and so far the programme has trained nearly 7,800 drivers. Drivers who completed the training found they achieved an average 16% improvement in miles per gallon, giving employers a potential annual fuel saving of £3.3m. Ruth Kelly said: "White van man is turning green. By learning safe, fuel efficient driving techniques, van drivers are playing a vital role in cutting CO2 emissions. They're helping tackle climate change, saving money and improving safety without impacting on customer delivery times. I congratulate all the drivers who've done the training so far and urge others to do the same - it makes business and environmental sense."
The new money will part fund training for new instructors, new assessors and up to 6,500 drivers over the next three years. SAFED is a one-day training course involving a mix of classroom and on-the-road tuition. It teaches drivers how techniques such as better use of gears and brakes, keeping correct braking distances and better road awareness can improve both fuel efficiency and safety.
The scheme has already been taken up by a number of large employers such as Rentokil Initial UK Cleaning and Facility Services; they found significant financial and environmental gains could be made by using advanced driving techniques without any noticeable impact on delivery or service times.
Colin Blake, Fleet Manager at Rentokil said: “With environmental, health and safety performance being top of the company agenda the SAFED scheme was one way our drivers could help us reach our environmental targets. In combination with our fuel monitoring system, we anticipate long term fuel and accident savings.”
Potential Benefits for employers include:
- increased fuel economy;
- reduced vehicle wear and tear;
- reduced accidents risk levels for driver and business; and
- improved company environmental performance.
Fleet managers and van drivers interested in finding out how SAFED for Vans could benefit their business should visit www.safed.org.uk/About.htm
Worker compensated for loss of hand
A construction worker is to receive a six-figure compensation sum after his left hand was cut off in a work accident. Bryan Banham, 31, was contracted to work for construction firm Van Elle to build a food factory in Suffolk. He was working with a colleague to drive in a pile when a weld snapped and the hole began to fill with water. As he was pouring in cement to prevent the flow of water, the two tonne hammer fell on Banham, severing his left hand. It was found later that the hammer had no safety catch and someone had accidentally pushed the free-fall button. The severed limb could not be retrieved.
Ruth Booy, the solicitor representing Banham, said: "Mr Banham is still in constant pain from the injury. He had a very physical job and an active social life and has lost both. He was also accomplished at building and DIY and he enjoyed cooking. None of these things are open to him now." The money that he has received from the settlement will help to pay for Banham's physical rehab, she added.
Van Elle is a geotechnical services, piling and foundation engineering contractors.
Road line painter injured in accident
A roadside accident that resulted in the severe injury of a worker has once again highlighted the importance of ensuring contractors adopt safe working practices. Graham Yule was hit by a taxi cab whilst painting ‘keep clear’ lines in a bus lane in West London. Yule, who was working for Central Linemarkings at the time, lost the use of an arm and required substantial face reconstruction surgery.
The accident happened following a decision not to lay out any cones or signs to warn traffic that road works were in place. The job had been deemed too short in duration.
Lisa Chappell, a HSE Inspector, said: “This unfortunate accident shows how important it is for contractors to provide appropriate instructions, training and supervision to safeguard their workers regardless of the duration of the work.” Central Linemarkings Manager, Stephen Smith, was fined £5,000, and ordered to pay £10,000 costs at the City of London Magistrates Court, after pleading guilty to health and safety charges.
Contractors and sub-contractors must, by law, provide their employees with information, instruction and training on anything which may affect their health and safety. It is good practice for health and safety responsibilities to be written into a contract.
The HSE advises that clients may need to agree with the contractor how the work will be done and the precautions that will be taken. The extent of the client’s responsibilities will be determined by the impact that the contractor’s work could have on anyone likely to be affected. Relevant issues include:
- what equipment should or should not be worked on/used;
- personal protective equipment to be used and who will provide it;
- working procedures, including any permits-to-work;
- the number of people needed to do the job; and
- reporting of accidents and safekeeping of records and plans.
