Steel firm sentenced for safety failings

Date:

10 January 2013

Release No:

YH/006/13

A Barnsley firm has admitted safety failings that led to one of its workers being struck on his back by a large steel girder.

The employee, who doesn't wish to be named, narrowly escaped being crushed by the girder at Sherling Steel UK Ltd's factory. Instead he was knocked to the floor when it hit him from behind.

The 46 year-old man, from Mapplewell in Barnsley, suffered severe bruising and soft tissue damage to his foot and lower leg in the incident on 12 September 2011.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigated and today (10 Jan) prosecuted Sherling Steel UK Ltd at Barnsley Magistrates' Court.

Magistrates heard that the worker had brought two girders into the workshop and placed them on powered rollers at the start of a shotblasting and painting line. He then left them for the weekend.

At the start of his Monday shift, the man set the rollers running and climbed through a curtain screen to put clean cling films on the rollers, forgetting the girders were on the same rollers further down the long machine. He was struck in the lower back as the girder moved toward him and knocked over the rollers onto the floor.

HSE found a series of safety flaws had led to the incident. Sherling Steel UK Ltd had never assessed the risks involved in using the machine and had not provided guards for the rollers to prevent access during operation.

The court heard that despite the fact that the film on the rollers inside the paint booth often needed changing, sometimes three or four times per shift, employees had not been provided with a safe system of work, instructions or isolation procedures for the task.

As a result, staff developed their own system, first changing the film while the rollers were not moving, but then later regularly applying the film as the rollers were running.

Sherling Steel UK Ltd, of Engine Lane, Shafton, Barnsley, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and Regulation 3(1)(a) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations. The company was fined a total of £20,000 and ordered to pay £7,356 in costs.

After the hearing, HSE Inspector Denise Fotheringham said:

"This incident was the result of Sherling Steel's long-term neglect of their responsibilities toward the safety of their workforce. It could very easily have resulted in a much more serious, even fatal, injury.

"In the 'safety vacuum' created by the firm's management, the employees developed their own methods for changing the cling film on rollers inside the paint booth. It was inherently unsafe as it involved going into the booth when it was not isolated and rollers were set on automatic.

"While I welcome the fact that the company has now provided extensive guarding and improved safety systems, it is deeply regrettable that their procedures at the time of the incident fell so far below accepted standards."

For information and advice on safe working with machinery, visit www.hse.gov.uk/manufacturing

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. Regulation 3(1)(a) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 states: "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."

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