Company fined after worker injured in fall from dock and company director fined for failure to assess risk

Date:

8 September 2010

Release No:

SCO/182/10

A company was fined a total of £14,000 after a night watchman was injured falling into water from the quayside. The company director has today been fined a total of £2,750 for failing to carry out a risk assessment.

RM Supplies (Inverkeithing) Ltd had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to breaching Regulation 4(1) and 5 of the Docks Regulations 1988. The company was fined a total of £14,000.

The operation involved the berthing of a vessel at Berth No.1 of a quay that was in a severely dilapidated condition. This was done at night, even though the quay lacked any lighting. In the course of this operation, Charles Greenhill, 47, fell into the water between the quay and the berthing vessel. Due to a lack of adequate means of escape or rescue, Mr Greenhill had to be rescued by the vessel's lifeboat.

At Dunfermline Sheriff Court today (8 September 2010), Mr Thomas Muir, who was Director of RM Supplies (Inverkeithing) Ltd, pleaded guilty to the charge of failure to carry out suitable and sufficient risk assessment - a breach of Regulation 3(1) of the Management Regulations 1999.

Mr Muir, 56, of Boglilly Road, Kirkcaldy, ran a scrap metal operation from The Bay in Inverkeithing. He was prosecuted under health and safety legislation following the incident on 16 May 2007.

HSE Inspector Michael Orr said:

"This was a significant breach of health and safety law which could have resulted in death had it not been for the intervention of the ship's crew. The conditions on site were unacceptable. There was no suitable or sufficient risk assessment, or attempt at planning which could have identified the state of the quay as unacceptable for use for any dock operations. This case should serve as a warning to all employers to ensure that routine and infrequent activities are effectively planned."

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. www.hse.gov.uk
2. Regulation 3(1) of the Management Regulations 1999 states that every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the health and safety of his employees to which they are exposed whilst they are at work; and the risks to the health and safety of persons not in his employment arising out of or in connection with the conduct by him of his undertaking.
3. Regulation 4(1) of the Docks Regulations 1988 places duties on employers, self-employed persons and persons with duties under Section 4 of the HSW Act, which imposes duties on persons controlling premises in relation to others who are not their employees but who use those premises as a place of work or as a place where they may use plant or substances provided for their use there. In the dock context this would therefore mean that duties are placed on owners or controllers of dock premises (even if they employ no one) in relation to any person whether employed or not who uses their premises. These duties only extend to matters within the person's control.
4. Regulation 5 of the Docks Regulations 1988 states that dock operations shall be planned and executed in such a manner as to ensure so far as is reasonably practicable that no person will be exposed to danger. The Approved Code of Practice the regulations makes specific reference to mooring and berthing operations. This work is frequently carried out by boatmen who will handle the mooring ropes from their own vessels and on shore. Matters to be considered include the provision of adequate lighting (Regulation 6), safe access (Regulation 7) and protective clothing (Regulation 19). Safe systems of work should be laid down to cover mooring operations.
5. In Scotland the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service has sole responsibility for the raising of criminal proceedings for breaches of health and safety legislation.

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