Member Article

Two fines issued as firms break health and safety laws

A COURT has heard how workers removing a crane runway from a Newcastle warehouse narrowly avoided being struck by a steel girder weighing almost four tons.

The 15 metre girder was so heavy it partially demolished a warehouse office when slings used to attach the beam to the lifting crane failed.

Lifting specialists and crane manufacturers, Konecranes UK Ltd had been contracted to move the overhead runway beam from one end of a warehouse to the other at Siemens Energy Services, in Shields Road in the city.

Newcastle Magistrates’ Court heard that when the slings failed the massive beam fell around 14 metres, narrowly missing workers and destroying an office. Fortunately the office was empty at the time and no-one was killed or injured as a result of the incident on 14 August 2009.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which brought the prosecution, revealed the operation had not been properly planned by Konecranes, which led to the wrong equipment being used.

Konecranes UK Ltd, of Lloyds House, Albion Road, West Bromwich, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 8(1)(c) of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998. The company was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay costs of £7,529.

Meanwhile, a Tyneside construction company was fined yesterday after a worker suffered serious injuries following a fall from unsafe scaffolding.

Ian Allan Building Contractors Ltd was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following the incident in the grounds of the Old Vicarage, off Knaresborough Road, Murton, County Durham on 1 May 2009.

Consett Magistrates’ Court heard Mr Kevin Clark, 54, from Swalwell, Gateshead, was working on the windows of a new building when the scaffolding platform he was standing on became dislodged, causing him to fall more than four metres to the ground. .

Mr Clark suffered several crushed vertebrae in his spine and a fractured left foot and was in hospital for two weeks following the incident.

The HSE investigation revealed that the company had failed to control alterations to the scaffolding, failed to conduct inspections of the scaffold at least every seven days, failed to identify and correct unsafe alterations and allowed workers to use unsafe scaffolding.

Ian Allan Building Contractors Ltd, of Jesmond Road, Jesmond, Newcastle, pleaded guilty of breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £1,500 and ordered to pay costs of £1,500 at Consett Magistrates’ Court today (28 February 2011).

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .