Health And Safety - Recent Cases Round-Up

A brief round-up of some recent health and safety cases:

1. Pirelli has been fined £20,000 after an employee broke his arm in a tyre testing machine at its Carlisle tyre factory. The worker had been trying to fix a fault on the machine following the Christmas shutdown when his left arm got trapped and was subsequently broken in three places when the machine started up.

   The HSE investigation found that although similar faults had occurred following previous Christmas shutdowns, Pirelli had not carried out any specific risk assessment in this regard. The investigation concluded that Pirelli's supervision of its maintenance employees was lacking and that general knowledge of the company's health and safety procedures was inadequate. In addition, the HSE found that there was no system of work to check that the company's Safe Working Procedures guidelines were being followed in practice.

2. The UK branch of car manufacturing giant General Motors was fined £150,000 and ordered to pay almost £20,000 in costs following the death of a long-serving maintenance electrician in its Ellesmere Port plant paint unit after he was crushed while trying to unblock a moving conveyor belt.

   According to the findings of the HSE investigation, a doorway had been created through a wall at the back of the paint unit in circumvention of its existing safety system which meant that workers could access the conveyor system while it was still operating. Although a risk assessment carried out in 2000 highlighted the potential danger posed by the cut-away door, no steps were taken to rectify the situation and it became standard practice for workers to access the conveyor system in this way.

3. Morgan Sindall and Northern Gas have been fined £35,000 and £50,000 and been ordered to pay almost £9,000 and £13,000 in costs respectively after being found to have failed to supervise welding work on a gas main which caused to a major blaze.

   The HSE investigation heard that as a result of numerous safety failings by the two companies, welding work on a section of metal pipe work of a gas main led to a blaze which resulted in a number of homes being evacuated and the local ring road being closed for two days.

   The investigation found that the companies had failed to effectively plan, supervise and manage the job as a whole, or provide the necessary risk assessment and safety procedures. The investigation also highlighted the lack of communication in the project and failings in the...