£75,000 Fine for Construction Company After a Worker Dies
24/04/2007
A Construction Company is fined £75,000 After a Worker Dies
Thank you so much for handling my case so well. You came to know us at a great time of sadness and you were so kind. We will always remember you as very professional but also very warm hearted.
Sylvia, Tamworth
Dawson Wam Ltd was fined £75,000 and ordered to pay costs of £34,425 at
Chester Crown Court after pleading guilty to a charge under the Health
and Safety at Work Act 1974 in that it failed to ensure the health and
safety of their employees.
Peter Roberts died on 10 May 2004, after a blocked concrete pump he was trying to clear hit him on the head.
The
accident happened on the site of the Quinn Glass bottle manufacturing
facility in Chester. The company Dawson Wam Ltd was constructing 7,500
piles as part of the foundations. On the day of the accident there was
a delay in the delivery of concrete to Mr Roberts piling rig and the
concrete which remained in the flexible rubber hose began to harden and
this led to a blockage.
After attempts to clear to blockage
failed, compressed air was used to try and solve the problem. The
flexible hose was broken up into individual sections and at least two
of these were blown out with compressed air without their ends being
restrained. When the last section was being unblocked, the end of the
hose quickly moved upwards and stuck Mr Roberts on the head, causing
fatal injuries.
Mr Roberts died four days later in hospital. The
HSE prosecuted the company, alleging that it had failed to ensure the
provision and maintenance of systems work which were safe and without
risk to employees during the cleaning and unblocking of the piling rig
and associated equipment.
The HSE argued that the company was
aware that this was a high risk operation and could potentially injure
its workers, but it had failed to carry out a formal risk assessment of
the cleaning and unblocking of the rig, meaning that there was no safe
system of working.
Inspector Robert Hodkinson of the HSE believes
that water would have been a much safer option to use rather than
compressed air in the unblocking of the equipment, and only compressed
air should have been used if there was no other practical alternative
available.
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