Company fined £25,000 for worker injuries

HSE Press Release: E079:04 - 3 June 2004

Construction company J Reddington Ltd was fined £25,000 today at the Central Criminal Court, London. The case followed an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the serious injuries suffered by Mr Warsame Yusaf in an incident at a site at Kew Riverside, Richmond, Surrey on 9 August 2002.

Mr Yusaf was taking part in an operation to move steel sheet piles with an excavator at the site. Mr Yusaf helped by attaching lifting slings to the sheet piles and, as he helped to guide the excavator to the point where the load was to be lowered, one of two slings broke suddenly, causing the load to fall and strike him.

HSE inspector Alec Ferguson, who investigated the incident, said:

"Mr Yusaf suffered terrible injuries as a result of this incident. The law requires the lifting and lowering of loads to be carried out in a safe manner. While the load was within the lifting capability of the slings, shackle and excavator, the method used of steadying the load - pushing the excavator bucket forward against the slings - caused damage to one of the slings and led to its failure. There was neither protective packing nor protective sleeving at the point where the bucket met the sling to prevent wear to it. There are lessons to be learned from this incident for all who use lifting equipment."

J Reddington Ltd, of 18 Silver Street, Enfield, Middlesex, had earlier pleaded guilty to breaching regulation 8(1)(c) of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations (LOLER) 1998 and was fined £25,000 and ordered to pay costs of £7,619.84 to HSE.

Notes to editors

1. Regulation 8 of LOLER states:

(1) Every employer shall ensure that every lifting operation involving lifting equipment is-

• (a) properly planned by a competent person;
• (b) appropriately supervised; and
• (c) carried out in a safe manner

(2). In this regulation 'lifting operation' means an operation concerned with the lowering or lifting of a load.

2. The maximum penalty in a Crown Court for the breach of a LOLER regulation is an unlimited fine.

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