Glasgow security firm fined following death of worker

Date:

4 June 2010

Release No:

SCO/151/10

A Glasgow-based security firm was fined £7000 following the carbon monoxide poisoning of a man employed as a security guard on a construction site in the city.

Thomas Fraser, 37, died of carbon monoxide poisoning at an on-site flat used as a base for employees. He had been working as a security guard for Alpha Group Security Ltd on the construction site at Ann Street, Burnbank, Hamilton.

Hamilton Sheriff Court heard a portable power generator was used inside the flat but Mr Fraser had not been provided with proper instructions on its safe use.

The generator was operated inside the flat without appropriate ventilation and on 6 February, 2008, Mr Fraser was overcome by a build up of carbon monoxide fumes and died.

Alpha Group Security Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1), 2 and 33 (a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

Following the case, Inspector Adrian Tinson said: "This tragic incident should never have happened. It is the clear duty of those who create risks to manage them and to implement safe systems of work.

"This means clear instructions should be provided to contractors and operators and checks made to ensure they understand them.

"It should not be assumed that someone knows how to operate equipment. Responsible management of risk should have ensured the safe set up and use of the portable petrol generator in a well-ventilated area which could have avoided this unnecessary death."

In March 2010, Clyde Valley Housing Association Ltd, which subcontracted Alpha Group Security Ltd, was fined £70,000 after pleading guilty to a charge under Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety etc Act 1974.

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. http://www.hse.gov.uk/
2. Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 states that "It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees."Without prejudice to the generality of an employer's duty under then preceding subsection, the matters to which that duty extends include in particular -
   1. the provision and maintenance of plant and systems of work that are, so far as is reasonably practicable, safe and without risks to health;
   2. arrangements for ensuring, so far as is reasonably practicable, safety and absence of risks to health in connection with the use, handling, storage and transport of articles and substances;
   3. the provision of such information, instruction, training and supervision as is necessary to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety at work of his employees;
   4. so far as is reasonably practicable as regards any place of work under the employer's control, the maintenance of it in a condition that is safe and without risks to health and the provision and maintenance of means of access and egress form it that are safe and without such risks;
   5. the provision and maintenance of a working environment for his employees that is, so far as is reasonably practicable, safe, without risks to health, and adequate as regards facilities and arrangements for their welfare at work
3. Free advice on gas safety is available from the HSE Gas Safety Advice Line on 0800 300 363 (freephone service) and by visiting www.hse.gov.uk

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