The worker was trying to fix a problem that happened as he and colleagues were using a metal grab to unload Spantherm, a concrete building product, from some trailers. The metal grab shouldn’t have been in use. His head became trapped in the jaws of the grab after a rope connected to the locking lever snapped.
Even though the rope was tied in a double-knot, the locking mechanism released the jaws of the grab as he pulled on it, causing fatal injuries.
His mother described him as a ‘one in a million son’. “I know a lot of people say that, but he really was out of this world,” she said.
The company was sentenced at Nottinghamshire Crown Court on 5 April, after they admitted failing to ensure its employees carried out lifting operations safely and without training and information being in place.
“Nobody should have to go through what we have done these past six years.”
An investigation by the Health and Safety executive (HSE) showed that the company did not have a safe system of work for the use of the grab and had not carried out a risk assessment to identify risks for its use. Both the grab and a fork lift truck being used at the time were in poor condition. Neither should have been in service at the time of the incident. There was also failure to ensure that these pieces of work equipment had been maintained in an efficient state, efficient working order or in good repair.
The company pleaded guilty of breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 in that it failed to ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all its employees. The company was fined £1,000,000 and ordered to pay costs of £47,521.08.
Speaking after the hearing HSE Inspector said: ”This tragic incident led to the avoidable death of a young man. The work equipment being used at the time of the incident should not have been in use, and the employer would have known this had they effectively followed their own health and safety systems.”
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Source of information: HSE: Information about health and safety at work