News Story – Incident / Accident / Prosecution
Company fined after worker died in excavation
A company has been fined after a man died while working inside an excavation at a construction site in Glasgow.
Derek Caddie lost his life when part of the excavation wall collapsed on 25 November 2019.
This led to the 44-year-old being trapped in soil from the neck down before being rescued by the emergency services. He died from his injuries in hospital three days later on 28 November.
Graeme McMinn, a principal inspector at the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), said: “This was a tragic and wholly avoidable accident, caused by the failure of Carrig Construction Services Limited to put in place measures to control the risk of the sides of the excavation collapsing.
“HSE provides freely available guidance on effective controls for working in excavations on the HSE website.”
Mr Caddie had entered the excavation with a colleague to repair damaged and leaking pipework, when the incident occurred. The colleague was left uninjured.
Carrig Construction Services Limited had been appointed as a contractor at the site on Belhaven Terrace West Lane where new houses were being built. Mr Caddie was working under the company’s control at the time of the incident.
An investigation by HSE found the collapse was caused by a lack of support to the vertical walls of the excavation. Carrig Construction Services Limited, a company that specialises in groundworks and drainage works, failed to identify the risks from working in the excavation and did not ensure there were practicable steps in place to ensure workers were protected while inside the excavation.
On top of this, none of the workers under the control of Carrig Construction Services Limited had any formal training on working within excavations and were unaware of the risks involved.
HSE guidance can be found at: Excavations – Construction Safety topics – HSE
Carrig Construction Services Limited, of Hunters Way, Lochwinnoch, Argyll, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) and Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The company was fined £75,000 at Glasgow Sheriff Court on 28 August 2024.
News Story – Legislation / Changes
Managing the risks of workplace transport
Vehicle-related deaths and injuries are preventable if employers take the right steps to assess the risks and implement the right control measures.
In April, an Oldham-based haulage company was fined £86,710 after forklift truck driver Ian Dawson was killed when the HGV he was loading moved forward causing the FLT to overturn, trapping Mr Dawson underneath it. He died as a result of his injuries in 2020.
HSE said the company had failed to put sufficient safe systems of work in place regarding vehicle movements and had not taken steps to ensure all FLT drivers wore seatbelts. The court heard that if Mr Dawson had been wearing a seatbelt it is highly likely that this would have saved his life.
In May, a metals recycling company was fined £1.2m after a worker’s skull was fractured when he was hit by a 32-tonne skip wagon as he walked across the firm’s yard. Neither the man nor the driver saw each other before the collision. The driver had been focusing on manoeuvring his vehicle around some low-level skips which had been placed on a corner near to where the employee was walking.
The court was told the firm had failed to take steps to assess the risks posed by the movement of vehicles and pedestrians at the site.
These are just two tragic examples of what can go wrong when workplace transport risks are not taken seriously. There are many more.
Workplace transport covers any activity involving vehicles used in a workplace. This includes moving goods or people within the workplace; loading, unloading and securing loads; sheeting; coupling; and vehicle maintenance work.
Vehicles using public roads are not usually classed as ‘workplace transport’ because they are covered by road traffic legislation. However, when public roads are used as ‘temporary workplaces’ for example during roadside deliveries, road works or breakdown assistance, health and safety law applies as it does to other workplace transport activities. During these times, employers and drivers have to consider the extra risks their activities may cause to other road users and pedestrians.
On average, each year in Great Britain, HSE says there are around 50 worker deaths and more than 5,000 injuries because of workplace transport activities. The most common causes are people falling from or being struck by a vehicle, objects falling from a vehicle, or vehicles overturning. In the five years from April 2018 to March 2023, 122 workers died after being struck by a moving vehicle at work and over 7,000 sustained non-fatal RIDDOR-reportable injuries.
These deaths and injuries are preventable if employers take the right steps to assess the risks from workplace transport and implement the right control measures.
Causes and measures to take
Most workplace transport-related deaths and injuries are a result of poor segregation of vehicles and pedestrians, inadequate driver training, poor visibility from a vehicle, lack of vehicle maintenance, working on unsafe slopes and surfaces, and poor lighting. To manage these risks effectively, there are three key areas employers need to consider when carrying out a risk assessment:
- Safe site (design and activity) including:
- Planning your workplace so pedestrians are safe from vehicles
- Providing a one-way system if you can
- Providing separate routes for pedestrians and vehicles where possible
- Avoiding reversing where possible
- Providing appropriate crossing points where pedestrians and traffic meet
- Using ‘highway code’ signs to indicate vehicle routes, speed limits, pedestrian crossings etc
- Making sure lighting is adequate where people and vehicles are working
- Keeping road surfaces firm and even
- Making sure there are safe areas for loading and unloading
- Providing separate car parking for visitors as they may not know your site.
- Safe vehicle including:
- Ensuring vehicles are suitable for the purpose for which they are used
- Maintaining vehicles in good repair, particularly the braking system, steering, tyres, lights, mirrors and specific safety systems
- Removing the need for people to climb up on vehicles where possible, e.g. By providing gauges and controls that are accessible from ground level
- Reducing the risk of falling when people have to climb onto a vehicle or trailer by providing well-constructed ladders, non-slip walkways and guard rails where possible
- Providing reversing aids such as cctv where appropriate
- Fitting rollover protective structures and ensuring seatbelts are used where fitted
- Checking that vehicles are inspected daily.
- Safe driver including:
- Checking that drivers are fit to drive
- Ensuring drivers are properly trained
- Ensuring drivers carry out daily vehicle checks
- Ensuring drivers know how to safely enter and exit the vehicle
- Ensuring visiting drivers understand what they have to do to stay safe working on the site.
ICE Risk Management – Product / Services / News
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