January 2013 Health and Safety Legal Update
The HSE issue Top 10 "Elf and Safety myths" proved not to be H&S after all.
Top 10 health and safety myths issued by the Health and Safety Executive after investigation proved that they were no such thing.
Often health and safety is used by some companies to explain some silly rules which are not health and safety issues at all.
One bus company banned hot drinks from their buses, this turned out to be about littering of their buses rather than health and safety. Also when a customer asked for a tray to carry some drinks at his local restaurant, he was refused due to health and safety, this was proved to be un-necessary also.
Top 10 Health and Safety Myths from the HSE
Steel firm was aware of safety failings prior to crane death
A steel company was fined £120,000 and ordered to pay over £26,000 in costs after one of its workers was killed in their factory, maintaining an internal moving crane.
Wilfred Williams, 57, was working as a maintenance engineer for C Brown & Sons (Steel) Ltd, when the incident took place, on 27 May 2011.
The incident could have easily been prevented had the crane been appropriately isolated and if Mr Williams had been wearing appropriate fall restraint equipment. The latter was being considered but had not been put into place at the time that the accident occurred.
Usually it is best practice to properly lock off electrical supply and any other nearby services (gas, compressed air, water, hydraulics and process pipes) which could cause an injury, if accidentally re-energised or damaged. There are many method which locking off of equipment can be achieved multi-hasp padlocks, lockable switch attachments and valve covers.
Fall restraint equipment is not expensive and numerous fall potential scenarios are catered for these days. Still far too many companies and workers do not take Working at Height seriously. Fatal injuries can occur falling less then two metres, the greater the fall distance, the higher the potential for serious injuries. No enforcement officer would accept someone working at very high level without an appropriate fall restraining system being in place for all working at height.
In this case the worker was 57 and may have been resistant to using new H&S equipment, procedures and possibly thought it would never happen to him (although this does not appear to be discussed or suspected, during this case.) The method of work he was using may have been practised for many years, without incident. Once new procedures are put into place they must be enforced, workers continuing to use outdated/ unsafe practices must be told what they are doing wrong and ultimately, if they continue to work unsafely for no good reason, (other than they don't want to change), they should be disciplined. Keeping written records of the process of H&S training, any behavioural H&S inspections (e.g. Safe Unsafe Act/ Condition Audits) and any disciplinary action, is vital. Often on the job training is provided, which is good for certain tasks, but may not be recorded.