A maintenance fitter at a steel plant in Cumbria could have been killed when part of a 300 kilogram roller shutter door fell on him, but his safety helmet took the brunt of the blow.
The protective headgear worn by Mr Anthony Ryecroft was split by the impact of the warehouse door, which he and colleague Mr Geoff Anderson had been sent to repair at the Workington plant of TATA Steel UK Limited (formerly Corus) on April 20th 2009.
Workington magistrates heard that the door had been hit by a forklift truck, causing it to become stuck. The men, both employees of the company, were removing nuts from the door's supporting pillar when it became loose and collapsed.
Both the workers suffered badly broken legs, and Mr Ryecroft also sustained cuts to his head and shoulder, after part of the falling structure struck him. He was off work for 15 months as a result of his injuries, while Mr Anderson never returned to work for the company and has since taken voluntary redundancy.
The HSE investigation into the incident found that TATA Steel UK Limited had failed to make sure a suitable risk assessment was carried out for the work and did not have a robust system in place to ensure its maintenance staff were carrying out work safely.
Mr Mike Griffiths investigating inspector at HSE said that "The work could have been carried out safely by removing the guide for the slats on the roller shutter door so that it could be wound up. However, it wasn't planned properly in advance due to the company’s procedures."
Sitting on December 22nd 2011, Workington magistrates fined the firm GBP 13,000 and ordered it to pay GBP 11,631 in costs, after it pleaded guilty to breaching section 2(1) HSWA 1974.
Speaking after the sentence, Mr Craig Scott MD of TATA Steel's projects business, said that "We investigated this accident fully and made a number of changes to the way we work to ensure that something like this can never happen again. The health and safety of our employees and contractors is our number one priority. We want to ensure everyone working on our sites is safe."
Inspector Mr Griffiths concluded that Mr Ryecroft could potentially have been killed if he hadn’t been wearing a hard hat.
(Sourced from www.shponline.co.uk)
