Quarry firms and foreman prosecuted
THE Health and Safety Executive is warning all those with responsibility for the health and safety of employees not to neglect their duties following an incident which resulted in a quarry worker being hospitalized for six days after he became trapped in machinery.
W&M Thompson (Quarries) Ltd, based in Low Prudhoe, Northumberland, and quarry foreman Alan Armstrong pleaded guilty to breaches of health and safety following an incident on 1 May 2007 at Bishop Middleham Quarry, near Ferryhill, Co. Durham, in which the quarry worker sustained three cracked ribs and bruised lungs after becoming trapped in a rotating, unguarded shaft between a tractor and a water bowser.
According to HSE Inspector Martin Baillie, who investigated the incident, a damaged guard on the machine had been removed by the quarry foreman, who then instructed the worker to operate the tractor and bowser without the guard in place.
Mr Baillie said it later transpired that the risk assessment carried out in 2004 for the tractor and bowser required checks on the guarding to be carried out on a daily basis and for these checks to be recorded, but at the time of the incident these checks were not being carried out.
‘It is reasonable to expect that had the damage to the guarding been identified during earlier checks, the problem would have been rectified prior to this incident,’ said Mr Baillie.
W&M Thompson (Quarries) Ltd were charged with contravening regulation 5(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, for failing to ensure that a piece of work equipment was maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair.
Mr Armstrong was charged with breaching Section 7 of the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974, for failing to take reasonable care of the health and safety of both himself and other persons likely to be affected by his acts or omissions at work.
Bishop Auckland Magistrates’ Court fined the company £3,000 and ordered £1,756 in costs to be paid, while Mr Armstrong was fined £1,200 and ordered to pay £500 in costs.
Commenting on the outcome, Mr Baillie said: ‘The HSE does not take the decision to prosecute individuals lightly. However enforcement action will always be considered where a person at work, particularly one in a position of responsibility, has by their actions endangered the safety of work colleagues.’
Meanwhile, in a separate case, Wildmoor Quarry Products Ltd have been fined £5,000 and ordered to pay £3,250 in costs following an incident at a site near Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, in which a quarry worker was struck on the head by a large lump of rock which fell from a portable screening plant. The employee, who was not wearing head protection at the time of the incident, sustained serious head injuries.
