HSE warns of the dangers of poor safety precautions after worker falls into pit

Date:

2 March 2009

Release No:

HSE/WM/475/2009

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is reminding businesses of the importance of implementing safe systems of work and ensuring that plant is maintained. This warning follows the prosecution of a dairy products company after an incident, in Telford, Shropshire, which left a worker seriously injured.

Dairy Crest Limited of Esher, Surrey was (on Monday 2nd March 2009) ordered, by Telford Magistrates, to pay £18,000 in fines, with £ 2,675 costs after pleading guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

The court heard that, on 17th June, 2007, a milk by-product effluent pit was being emptied and the contents drawn, via a three-inch (75mm) diameter hose, into a tanker. Employee John Webberley was using the water from a hot water hose to melt solidifying milk by-products in the pit and thereby prevent the formation of a thick crust. As the ill-fitting metal grating, meant to cover the pit, was not secured in place 57-year-old Mr Webberley slipped and fell into the six foot (1.9m) deep pit. He sustained substantial injuries to his groin, later necessitating surgery.

No measures had been taken to secure the grating or protect anyone from falling into the pit and the company had not provided and maintained a safe system of work. It was customary practice to remove the gratings while emptying the pit but no adequate safety precautions were in place during this procedure. Plant had not been adequately maintained so the gratings could have given way at any time.

HSE inspector David Kivlin said: "Regulations require employers to not only ensure that a safe system of work is followed but also that plant and equipment is safe to use. It is essential that covers and gratings of pits, containing free-flowing solids and liquids, are of a suitable and sufficient construction and well-maintained. This should minimise the risk of them giving way and ensure that employees working in and around them are not exposed to unnecessary risk.

"In this case the employer failed to adequately assess the risks associated with the task of emptying the pit. If a suitable risk assessment had been undertaken it should have identified the poor systems of work being used and this accident could have been easily avoided. The employee who fell received substantial injuries, which will have a lasting effect on his quality of life and as a result he will not be able to return to work.

"Employers should remember that falls remain one of the biggest killers of workers and in most cases the precautions needed are simple. There is ample free guidance readily available from HSE to help companies take the right action."

Notes to editors

1. Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states: "it shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety".

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Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by COI News and PR West Midlands.