Health and safety at work

Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court has awarded compensation to a man who was badly burnt by a shower while at a Gouldings’ respite home. In 2009, Brian Leek, 76, suffered severe burns to thirteen percent of his body after extremely hot water emerged from the respite home’s shower. He required treatment from a specialist burns hospital. Mr Leek’s injuries will not heal completely and he is therefore unable to return home to live with his wife. Isle of Wight Council was orde....

A 40-year-old woman golfer has been awarded £7,500 in personal injury compensation after sustaining severe injuries whilst leaving a golf course in Staffordshire. Burton-upon-Trent Magistrates' Court heard how the woman was walking along a footpath towards the car park of the golf club when she was hit in the face by a golf ball which had been hit from the club's driving range. The accident left the woman with several broken teeth, serious facial lacerations and bruising. She was taken to ....

Recent figures  released have revealed that Bedfordshire Police has paid £45,894 to staff for personal injuries sustained while at work since 2006. £10,000 compensation was paid to one female crime officer who hit her head after the back of her chair snapped. The incident, involving the officer, happened in 2003 but the case was not closed or money paid out until 2007. Another police officer received £5,000 personal injury compensation after the officer was injured fol....

Stephen Rowley, a worker from Cheshire, recently suffered serious burn injuries in a horrific explosion at work after being caught in an explosion as he attempted to remove pipe work from a trench. The 43 year old worker had been at Knutsford’s Egerton Youth Club when he was caught in a blast caused by the rupture of a liquid petroleum gas pipe. Mr Rowley was engulfed in a massive fireball in the explosion. He sustained severe burn injuries to both his upper body and face, requiring him ....

John Alty, 40, and another worker were at the top of a disused chimney at Swan Lane Mills in Greater Lever when the scaffolding they were on collapsed forcing Mr. Alty to fall 50 meters to his death and his colleague was left clinging on for his life. Read the full HSE press release.....

A worker from East London broke his back when he fell through the skylight of a building extension. He fell while removing tarpoulin from the one-story roof extension at a flat in Collamore Avenue, South London on 18thy December 2006. His employer James Thompson was fined £10,000 for breaching Health and Safety Laws.Read the full HSE press release.....

Christopher John Shaw (38) who worked for a major paper producer in North Wales was left paralysed from the chest down after being crushed in an accident at work.  Mr Shaw, from Wirral, was working as an assistant winder for SCA Hygiene Products UK Ltd when he was crushed by a two tonne reel of paper causing him serious injuries which left him with paralysis. Read the full HSE press release. ....

Pensioner Francis Steele of Lower Netchwood, Dilton Priors, died after falling from a hospital bed. The hospital staff at Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust left him with one rail on his bed to guard him from falling out. Shropshire Health Trust was fined £50,000 and was ordered to pay £8,476 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching Health and Safety Law. Read the full HSE press release. ....

Whittle agricultural college was prosecuted for potentially endangering a teenage agricultural student. According to information supplied by the Health and Safety Executive, between April 2009 and March 2010, 38 people died on British farms and there were 640 reported major injuries such as broken bones or amputations in accidents on farms. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted the college for breach of health and safety law. Read the full HSE press release. ....

An employee of Overton Recycling was knocked out  by nitrogen whilst inside a fridge recycling machine. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has prosecuted the recycling company. Read the full HSE press release.....

Mr McGill died after sustaining severe brain injuries in an accident at a school where he worked as an electrician. East Ayrshire Council was fined £56,000 over the death of Mr McGill who was killed when a work platform collapsed in a school gym hall. Mr Robert McGill died after he suffered severe brain injuries in the accident at Kilmarnock Academy in April 2010. East Ayrshire Council accepted breaching health and safety law. The Court sitting at Kilmarnock was told that the counc....

Food giant Walkers Snack Foods Ltd and chemical distributor Omnichem Ltd have been fined a total of £350,000 after a worker was killed by poisonous gas. John Marriott, 59, of Scalford, was working for Omnichem on 19 July 2006 when he was seriously affected by green chlorine dioxide fumes. Leicester Crown Court heard how Mr Marriott was driving a lorry containing four steel tanks, two with Sodium Chlorite and two containing Hydrochloric Acid, to Walkers’ site in Leicester. The Lor....

A Contractor from Brynteg, near Wrexham, was working on the roof of Comet’s Mount Street store when he stepped on a roof light and fell around 25 feet onto the store floor. Mr Alker, 33, was not wearing any equipment which could have prevented his fall. He suffered multiple injuries including rib fractures, a broken collar bone and soft tissue injuries which led to his death. Following the incident on 7 June 2007, Comet Group plc was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).....

British Safety Council has launched a new campaign. The campaign is aimed at young people and encourages them to take responsibility for their own health and safety at work. There is an increasing number of young people who feel pressurised or lack the confidence at work to raise their concerns directly with managers. The campaign encourages young people to feel confident talking to their work supervisor, parent, teacher or friends if they feel that they are in an unsafe work environment. No y....

On 1st June 2010 Premier League football club Aston Villa was fined after a worker was badly injured in an accident when he fell through a roof at its training ground. Two contractors from Mechanical Cleansing Services Ltd were working at the Bodymoor Heath complex near Sutton Coldfield in 2007 when one of them plunged three metres through a roof. The company had been employed to drain fuel tanks on a roof during demolition of an old building on the site. Stratford-on-Avon Magistrates heard ....