Lofstedt Review
This government review of Health & Safety was due to be published by the end of October; maybe it will be out in time for our November newsletter?
Can you see the Emergency Cut-off Valve?
Painting the handle yellow, adding a sign to the wall and tidying the storage would be a great improvement.
Recent cases
£300,000 fine and £219,352 costs for the electricity company that managed to electrocute an employee at one of their depots. Amazingly, they failed to adequately train their staff who had tried to carry out maintenance on an overhead power line without disconnecting the electrical supply.
A self-employed roofer received an 8 month suspended sentence and was ordered to pay £500 costs for working on a roof without taking any precautions. A friend climbed a ladder to speak to him, suffered a stroke and fell through a gap in the roof; dying 3 weeks later from his injuries.
Changes to a machine introduced a nip risk that resulted in a worker being pulled into the machine and killed. Five other machines on site were inadequately guarded. The company were fined £200,000 with £43,352 costs.
A 3 year conditional discharge and an order to pay £70 compensation for the fairground worker that failed to ensure restraint bars were locking correctly. A 13 year old fell 4 metres onto concrete and, fortunately, only suffered minor injuries. It had been reported that the same restraint bar had come open 2 rides earlier when the occupier was held in place by the people sitting on each side.
Safety & Health Practitioner, Oct 2011
A takeaway was closed by Emergency Prohibition Notice because of a severe cockroach infestation. The owner was recently fined £4,000 plus £3,466 costs.
£13,000 fine, £8,000 costs and £5,000 compensation against the golf club where a green keeper suffered partial finger amputation and other injuries trying to unjam a golf ball cleaning machine. Apparently, the front guard was not fixed in position and could be easily removed by hand.
Environmental Health News, Oct 2011
Safe Maintenance
A recent project to support the European Week of Safety & Health involved reviewing a client’s existing risk assessments relating to maintenance and preparing additional risk assessments. It has resulted in the client being recognised within the European Healthy Workplaces Campaign (see certificate below).
As part of the project, maintenance personnel viewed a humorous Napo video which triggered quite a few discussion points. Clips or the entire video can be seen at
http://www.napofilm.net/en/napos-films/napoepisode?filmid=napo-014-safe-maintenance
And for something different – my first car
The J40 Roadster was based upon the 1948 Austin Devon. It was a pedal car made from off-cuttings of the real car and painted to the same standard. It was made by disabled miners in South Wales from 1950 to 1971 as a government project.
It had Dunlop pneumatic tyres, leather seats and good quality chrome bumpers and trims. Inside the opening bonnet was a dummy engine but there was a real boot and the lights and horn worked. The car was a major part of the 1955 Norman Wisdom film “One Good Turn.”
Congratulations to Apex Cylinders
