Company fined after worker sustains serious burns

Date:

27 February 2012

Release No:

COISE/27-07

An employee of an Oxfordshire-based engineering company sustained life-threatening burns after striking a high voltage electric cable during construction work on the new Crossrail railway.

Fugro Engineering Services Ltd was appointed principal contractor to deliver a series of ground investigations, known as Package 16, as part of the multi-billion pound project to connect Maidenhead, Shenfield and Abbey Wood to central London.

At a sentencing hearing today, the Central Criminal Court heard that on 7 February 2008, a Fugro employee was using a hydraulic breaker to create an inspection pit for a borehole outside 1 Hanover Street, London, when he struck a high voltage electric cable.

The employee, who was 63 at the time of the incident, suffered severe injuries as he was treated for 60 per cent burns.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found that the system of work in place at the time of the incident did not ensure that the roles of those involved in the project were clearly defined. Effective lines of communication were not established and appropriate training in safe digging techniques was not provided to operatives.

Furthermore, key safety documentation showing the presence of the cable was not kept at the borehole location. Although the site was scanned with a cable avoidance tool to detect underground services, no markings were made on the road to indicate where cables were found.

After the hearing HSE inspector Lisa Chappell said:

"It is completely foreseeable that electric cables would be present in a busy London street, and there is well-established guidance and training to ensure digging is carried out safely.

"Had Fugro Engineering Services provided the correct training, supervision and a safe system of work, proportionate to the level of risk involved, then this serious incident could have been avoided."

Fugro Engineering Services Ltd, of Wallingford, Oxfordshire, had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 in relation to the incident. The company was fined £55,000 and ordered to pay £30,000 in costs.

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 & 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. Crossrail is the new high frequency, convenient and accessible railway for London and the South East. When the service opens Crossrail trains will travel from Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east via new twin tunnels under central London. It will link Heathrow Airport, the West End, the City of London and Canary Wharf. More information can be found at www.crossrail.co.uk

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