Black Country firm fined after worker crushed

Date:

18 November 2010

Release No:

WM232/10

A Birmingham galvanising firm was sentenced on 17 November after a man was crushed to death when a crane's jig and load fell on him.

David Hunt, 49, from Dudley, was moving 500kg of metal components using a travelling crane when both the crane's jig and the load it was holding, weighing around 1.3 tonnes in total, fell directly onto him.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the lifting machinery that Mr Hunt had been using was unsuitable for the work and poorly maintained, so prosecuted Mr Hunt's employers, Ark Brothers Limited of Birmingham.

It also found that there was some wire wrapped round safety catches on the crane, suggesting that they did not always engage properly and additional measures had been needed.

At the time of the incident the firm was trading as Arkinstall Galvanising Ltd, and the incident happened at the firm's Ebro Works in Dudley Road, Tividale.

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard Mr Hunt, who had worked at the company for more than two decades, as had his father before him, was moving the metal components on 16 January 2008 when the incident occurred.

Ark Brothers Limited, of Charter House, Legge Street, Birmingham was fined £1,500 and ordered to pay £37,500 costs after pleading guilty to breaching Regulation 4 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

HSE Inspector Judith Lloyd said:

"Mr Hunt's tragic death was completely avoidable and resulted directly from an unsafe system of work.

"There were significant problems with the hooks on the crane and Ark Brothers ignored warnings as to their condition over several months, and no lessons were learnt from previous incidents.

"Health and safety generally at the site was accorded a low priority, with the emphasis instead firmly on production.

"Employees were regularly exposed to unacceptable risks to their health and safety. It is a tragedy for Mr Hunt and his family that his death could have been prevented if the company had taken proper precautions."

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce 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.
2. Regulation 4 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 states: "Every employer shall ensure that work equipment is so constructed or adapted as to be suitable for the purpose for which it is used or provided."
3. Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 states: "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."

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Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by COI News & PR (West Midlands)