December 2012 H&S Legal Update:
Worker loses fingers in incident at multinational metal and chemical company's site:
A multinational precious metals and chemical company has appeared in court after an employee sustained a serious hand injury at a plant in Royston, Hertfordshire. This incident demonstrates the importance of adequate guarding in the workplace and how missing or removed guarding can lead to serious injuries.
Johnson Matthey Plc, whose UK head office is based at Farringdon Street, London, was fined a total of £20,000 and ordered to pay £2,194 in costs after pleading guilty to two charges under the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.
http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2012/rnn-e-10712.htm?ebul=hsegen&cr=3/10-dec-12
The HSE issue new guidance on wood dust exposure:
The HSE issue new guidance on wood dust exposures and the design of local exhaust ventilation systems.
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/wis23.pdf
Halfords Fined for Incident where delivery driver badly injured at one of their stores:
An incident at a Halford's store in which a delivery driver was badly injured resulted in a £5000 fine plus £5000 costs. The worker was still unable to walk well, 12 months after the incident but the consequence could have been much worse. Many incidents of this nature result in a fatality incident.
In our experience, enforcement officers usually only prosecute in similar incidents, if a life changing injury, potentially life changing injury has occurred or previous advice on the issue had not been followed. Often how far from best practice the company was on the issue, is taken into account during the case.
In this case the fine given and costs were relatively lenient. Obviously if the outcome had been more serious, the fine would probably have been much higher. Also the judge will have taken into consideration what relevant safeguards the company had in place at the time of the incident, previous advice given by experts (e.g. enforcing officers, H&S Advisers and Consultants), if the company helped (or hindered) during the investigation and how the company has changed its policies and procedures, since the incident took place.
If a life changing injury did not occur and the enforcement officer has seen appropriate safeguards put into place since the original incident, they are usually happy for the case to be dealt with as a civil matter (i.e. as a personal injury claim by the injured party.)
The award for a personal injury of this nature is likely to be very high, although the compensation would be paid by the public/ employers liability insurer.
Health and safety experts say for every £1 paid out in compensation (which is covered by insurance) there is roughly ten times that amount which isn't covered by insurance, such as setting on new staff (to replace the injured one), overtime pay, paying someone to deal with enforcing officers during the investigation, paying a solicitor to act on your behalf, paying sick pay, increased insurance premiums and cost of the impact on companies reputation, if the incident becomes public.
http://www.shponline.co.uk/incourt-content/full/delivery-driver-segregation-wasn-t-addressed
What is best practice on this issue?
Summary of good practice of workplace traffic control:
- High visibility clothing must be worn, this safeguard is rarely enough on its own.
- Marked safe pedestrian walkways inside and outside building, where vehicles are used, make collisions less likely.
- Marked crossing areas.
- Good housekeeping is essential for many health and safety reasons including safe traffic movement in the workplace.
- Automatic barriers, gates, walls or fences may be appropriate in certain areas.
- Avoid reversing, if at all possible, where pedestrian could be present.
- Where reversing is unavoidable, it must be appropriately controlled.
- Adequate lighting is crucial to lower the risk of a collision.
- The lower the speed the lower the consequences of a collision.
- Pedestrian/ vehicle entrances should be separate, if at all possible.
- Monitor and enforce your site specific rules and regulations, do not let them lapse over time.
Pedestrian/ Vehicle segregation is very important in the workplace, many serious injuries occur each year as a result of poor workplace traffic control and procedures. There are a number of ways to achieve adequate traffic control. Issuing everyone with a high visibility vest is not usually deemed as enough these days, unless further control measures are in place.
Marked safe pedestrian walkways which lead workers to the safest area inside and outside buildings is usually the bare minimum which is acceptable these days to enforcing officers.
Good housekeeping is essential and cannot be underestimated for many health and safety reasons. Avoiding having products, materials, hoses, cables and vehicles on marked pedestrians walkways will reduce the risk of a collision. Putting equipment vehicles and equipment other areas which might reduce visibility and increase the risk of a collision with pedestrians, must be avoided.
Lighting must be adequate to ensure that areas are adequately illuminated, during working hours. Poor lighting will make a collision more likely. Lighting in requirements for companies where night workers are used will need to be of a higher standard than 9-5 operations.
Areas where pedestrians have to cross vehicle routes should be highlighted by marked crossing points by floor markings and signage, where appropriate.
Additional control measures such as automatic barriers, gates, fences and walls, may be appropriate, depending on the workplace layout. For example where building entrances/ exits are very close to vehicle routes and automatic barriers can be used to control the number of vehicles which you allow onto site or into certain areas.
Consideration needs also to be given to how vehicles move around in the workplace, how many and what type of vehicles will be moving around the site. Heavy goods, fork lift truck and self propelled construction plant all have specific health and safety issues associated with them. They all have blind spots and can cause serious injuries, should the collide with a pedestrian.
If at all possible pedestrian entrances into buildings should be separate from vehicle entrances.
Using layouts which reduce or eliminate reversing (e.g. by utilising one way systems) make it less likely for a collision, as does a site speed limit. Where reversing is unavoidable, it must be controlled for example by using trained/ competent reversing assistants or banksmen. There are also automated reversing system which can be installed onto loading bays (often seen in some large modern warehouses), with red/ green traffic light control systems, which drivers should pay attention to during reversing.
Of course all of the site rules and procedures must be used, monitored and enforced for them to remain effective.
For more information read these HSE documents: