Health Safety and Environmental Alerts

1 Grontmij Ltd, Grove House, Mansion Gate Drive, Leeds, LS7 4DN 0113 2620000 A Sheffield company that crushes rubble from construction and demolition waste has been fined 300,000 after an employee was killed by an overturning skip lorry in Derbyshire. David Vickers, 37, of Walton, was tipping a skip at Adis Scaffolding Ltd's site in Markham Lane, Duckmanton. Derby Crown Court heard today (7 June) that he had exited the cab of the truck he was driving to deploy the stabilising rear outriggers before raising a skip using the lifting arms.

2 However, as he did so the vehicle overturned and landed on top of him, causing fatal injuries. He died at the scene. A subsequent investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the skip was mis-hooked, with the hooks engaging on the lip of a base plate rather than a catch bar, the correct part of the skip. This meant that it tipped normally until reaching an angle of approximately 70 degrees, at which point it broke free and swung out backwards causing the front of the vehicle to lift several feet off the ground.

3 During the course of tipping the offside outrigger retracted causing the lorry to tip over. HSE also established that there was no safe system of work for the skip operation, including how to handle mis-hooks and other foreseeable problems; that there was inadequate training and instruction; that the skip lorry controls were not marked; and that the risk assessment for loading and unloading skips fell short of indentifying all significant risks and controls. Adis Scaffolding Limited, now in liquidation but formerly of Queen Street, Sheffield, was fined 300,000 and ordered to pay 124,468 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

4 After the hearing HSE inspector Edward Walker said: "The failings by Adis Scaffolding Limited were substantial, ranging from unsuitable equipment, an inadequate risk assessment, inadequate training and instruction, and an absence of safe systems of work. "These failings led to a situation where things went badly wrong, and where David was placed in an impossible situation. His tragic death could easily have been avoided with better planning, management and foresight.

5 " As a result of the incident HSE issued an industry-wide Safety alert highlighting the dangers of incorrect engagement of hooks on skips. Unsuitable traffic management at a roadworks site on the A50 led to a motorist being killed after he collided with a stationary flatbed lorry. Enterprise (AOL) and Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Services were each fined 225,000 and ordered to pay 100,000 in costs at Liverpool Crown Court after an investigation by the Health & Safety Executive. The motorist had failed to negotiate a bend at a road closure on the westbound carriageway of the A50 near Uttoxeter and hit the flatbed lorry owned by Enterprise.

6 The road had been closed at the junction with the A522 while works were carried out to overhead power lines and the central reservation barrier. Traffic management had been the responsibility of Enterprise and Balfour Beatty was managing the works. The HSE found that traffic management was unsuitable as it was not clear that the road ahead was closed and that drivers had to exit the A50 at the junction with the A522. Sheffield Company Fined for Skip Lorry Death Health Safety and Environmental Alerts June Newsletter Highway Firms Fined after Collision with Road Works Health Safety & Environmental Alerts newsletter Grontmij Ltd, Grove House, Mansion Gate Drive, Leeds.

7 LS7 4DN 0113 2620000 The investigation also found that Enterprise failed to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment and that Balfour Beatty failed to properly assess the risk assessment or that the system being proposed was adequate. In addition Balfour Beatty also failed to adequately monitor the work of its subcontractors. The A50 had been reduced to one lane prior to the works and vehicles were then diverted off the main carriageway and onto the A522, which involved a sharp left hand bend.

8 However the speed limit had not been reduced so vehicles were still able to travel at up to 70 MPH. After the hearing HSE inspector Katharine Walker said: Enterprise relied on a generic risk assessment for a lane closure rather than properly assessing the road and implementing a suitable system of traffic management for a full closure. As the organisation responsible for what happened on the road, Balfour Beatty should have checked the assessment and identified this failing.

9 Whilst undertaking enabling works to provide a new sludge skip storage area at Neiley WwTW, an 11kV cable was damaged by a floor saw which was being used to cut an existing concrete road. As well as being a significant Safety issue, the damage resulted in loss of power to the works. Prior to commencing work, the team were aware of the cable and its presence was recognised within the RAMS that had been prepared and briefed to those involved in the operation. The line of the cable had been confirmed using cable detection equipment and had been assumed that it passed well below the depth of the proposed cut at the minimum specified depth.

10 The cable was in fact just below the concrete road and was cut by the floor saw. There was no visual indication of the strike at the time and the link between the power outage and the cutting operation wasn t realised until the following morning. The area was then cordoned off and made safe, prior to commencing investigations and repairs. Last Thursday (13 June 2013) one of our experienced Team Leaders,working on the North London Developer Services contract, received flash burns to his face, arms and legs.