Schindler fined after engineer is crushed to death at Heathrow

Date:

30 March 2012

Release No:

LON/060/12

Lift manufacturer Schindler Ltd has been fined £300,000 for safety failings after an employee was crushed to death while installing a passenger lift at Heathrow Airport.

Lift engineer Kevin Dawson, 45, was helping with the construction of Terminal 5A at London Heathrow when the incident occurred on 27 October 2007.

The ladder from which Kevin Dawson was working when he was struck and killed by the heavy counterweight.

Isleworth Crown Court heard that Mr Dawson was working from a ladder within the pit of a lift shaft, into which he and other Schindler employees were installing three new lift cars. As a colleague used one of the cars to fetch equipment from a higher level, a counterweight descended, crushing Mr Dawson and causing fatal injuries.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) revealed the unfinished passenger lift was used to carry workers, tools and materials despite missing key safety-critical components.

HSE also found the company's radio and telephone arrangements were ineffective, and workers routinely communicated by shouting up and down the lift shaft. This was potentially confusing while others were working in adjacent shafts.

And there was no evidence that Schindler had identified the risk of impact or crushing from moving lift parts, and therefore failed to plan, organise or supervise activity to control and prevent this risk.

The HSE investigation concluded that Schindler Ltd ultimately failed its duty of care in allowing unsafe working practices to continue.

The company, of Green Street, Sunbury-on-Thames, Middlesex, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) and Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and Regulation 8(1) of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 in relation to the incident

In addition to the £300,000 fine for the three breaches, Schindler Ltd was also ordered to pay £169,970 in costs.

After the hearing HSE Principal Inspector Norman Macritchie said:

"Kevin Dawson's death is a wake-up call for all involved in the installation and maintenance of lifts. His death was entirely preventable, and we need to ensure that nobody else suffers the same fate.

"It is hard to overstate the potential for death or serious injury arising from moving machinery, electricity and working at height - all of which are everyday risks in this industry.

"Lift shafts by their very nature are confined and often poorly-lit places, where heavy components can move suddenly, silently and without warning. Due planning and extreme care must be taken at all times. It wasn't on this occasion and a life was needlessly lost as a result."

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. 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."
3. Section 3(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 not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety."
4. Regulation 8(1) of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 states: "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.

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Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by COI News & PR London