A global glass bottle manufacturer has been fined £600,000 after a worker suffered burns when molten glass and hot water spilled into his cab. O-I Glass Limited pleaded guilty to a single health and safety charge following the incident at its Glasshouse Loan site in Alloa on 3 February 2024. The 32-year-old employee sustained scald burns covering eight percent of his body but has since made a full recovery. The company employs around 500 people at the Alloa site, which operates continuously to produce glass bottles. Furnaces used to smelt raw materials are located above two glass reject basements containing large, moveable skips. These skips collect molten or formed glass rejected during the..

An investigation was conducted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following a serious incident on the 13th June 2023. A father of three sustained serious injuries after falling more than 25 feet (7.5 metres) whilst manually carrying roof tiles down a ladder attached to fixed scaffolding. Devon Air Ambulance took Mr Ian Smith to the hospital where he was put into an induced coma for five days. He has since made a fantastic recovery however still suffers from his injuries, which included five broken vertebrae as well as skull and rib fractures. His employer, Daniel Hooper (self-employed) was given a 16-week custodial sentence (suspended for 12months) following the incident..

An investigation was carried out by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following a gruesome incident which was so severe that an employee had to have his leg amputated above the knee. The incident occurred on the 5th of October 2022, whilst employees were sorting out refuse at the Pink Skips (NW) Ltd site at Levenshulme. CCTV footage provided the HSE investigators with key knowledge about the incident. When reviewed, it showed employees working around and in close proximity to a 360° rotating excavator. One of the employees was standing behind the vehicle whilst it was moving waste, when it suddenly reversed, striking him and running over his leg. The investigation also found tha..

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have released the 2023/24 statistics for UK work-related fatal injuries and according to these statistics, there were 138 deaths across all UK workplaces in 2023–24 with the construction industry accounting for more than a third of the total with 51 fatalities. The new figures, which can be found here, show that the annual number of work-related fatalities has remained broadly similar for over a decade. Additionally, as per previous years, male workers continue to account for the vast majority of fatal injuries with 95% of those recorded in the year being men. Within the statistics published is one that truly horrified me. A staggering 34% of work..

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) conducted an investigation following an incident at Code-A-Weld, Harfreys Industrial Estate, Great Yarmouth on the 19th November 2022. A man (54 years) was airlifted to hospital and placed into an induced coma after being struck by an object whilst manufacturing steel cable drums for the offshore industry. During the manufacturing process, the jacking set-up failed, causing parts to strike the man in the face. This caused extremely serious injuries including fractures to the man's face and skull, and him losing the sight in one eye. The man required facial reconstruction surgery and spent just under three weeks in hospital. Although the company..

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) conducted a thorough investigation following a site visit to a property where a man was carrying out unsafe work on his home in Manchester. The HSE served enforcement notices to put work to an immediate stop in August 2020. During their initial visit, the Health and Safety Executive found that Abdul Rehman had engaged operatives to help him build an extension to the property on Kings Crescent in Old Trafford. At the property there was an extremely unsafe scaffold, which was subsequently dismantled. A year later, in November 2021, the HSE found that Mr Rehman was once again carrying out work on his property and instructing operatives to re-r..

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation was carried out after the death of a construction worker. Gary Webster, a 60-year-old man was repeatedly pulled under water after his boat capsized during routine cleaning of the River Aire. Mr Webster and another worker (who managed to swim to safety) had been removing debris at the bottom of the weir gates at Knostrop Weir. The accident occured when the boat they were using was pulled into churning water due to the considerable rush of water flowing over the top of the weir. Mr Webster was eventually recovered by a dive team 14 minutes later but was pronounced dead two-days later on November the 1st 2017. The investigat..

A 47-year-old grandfather sustained multiple fractured vertebrae on the 14th November 2019 at a Pirelli Tyres' factory in Carlisle. The forklift truck engineer was in the process of servicing a truck when two metal skips fell from a stack of waste tyres, crushing Mr Weightman against the ground. A HSE investigation found that in order for Mr Weightman to work on the forklift truck, he had to move the truck. He was however, unaware that the truck was positioned to stabilise the skips. This improvised working method was approved by Pirelli, and carried out by workers regularly at International Rubber and Tyre Recycling Limited and DCS Multiserve Limited. There had been no effective cont..

A motorsport engineering firm based in Kent has been fined after Britain’s workplace regulator identified numerous health and safety breaches. Inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) visited Hispec Motorsport Limited - a specialist designer and producer of aftermarket brake upgrades for road, race, track, and kit cars. During their visits, the inspectors found serious breaches of the law and enforcement notices were issued. The subsequent investigation found the business had not maintained work equipment and staff were seen operating Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines with safety panels removed allowing access to dangerous moving parts. A high voltage panel..

On 30 October 2019, Niall McCormack from Kettering, Northamptonshire had been working with another carpenter at a new build construction site in Alconbury Weald, Cambridgeshire. The pair were removing trusses from a pack, to then spread and install across there building. As they were in the process of spreading, a gust of wind caught a spandrel panel, pushing it against the remaining trusses in the pack. Both the truss pack and spandrel panel fell into the work area, hitting Niall McCormack. An investigation conducted by the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) following the tragedy found that KM Carpentry Contractors Limited had failed to identify the risk and effect the wind cou..

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) conducted an investigation after an employee of Dnata Ltd was crushed to death at London Heathrow Airport on the 23rd February 2022. The incident occurred during the unloading of baggage containers from an Emirates Airbus which had arrived from Dubai. The employee walked underneath a high loader (a raised platform similar to a scissor lift) in order to access the other side of a trailer. At the same time the high-loader operator lowered one of its two hydraulically operated platforms, which trapped then fatally crushed the employee. A spindle locking mechanism used to secure containers onto the baggage trailer was broken at the time of the..

A food manufacturing company has been fined following a serious incident at its premises in Wirral. Sharon Bramhall had been supervising four members of staff as they completed high-level cleaning tasks during a night shift on the 22nd April 2022. She had been acting as a "banksman" as the MEWP turned at a right angle into the warehouse and struck Sharon, crushing her left leg. The 58-year-old had to have her left leg amputated below the knee following a incident at Baker & Baker Products on Stadium Road, but said that she felt "lucky" and stated "I know i could have died". An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) revealed a series of failings by Baker & Baker Produ..

An investigation was conducted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following the death of a sub-contractor hired by NG Bailey Limited. Alistair Hutton, lost his life whilst working on a mobile elevating work platform (MEWP) along an unfinished corridor of the Baird Family Hospital in Aberdeen on 18 January 2023. The 51-year-old immediately lost consciousness, when his head struck a metal lintel. Mr Hutton, who lived in Forfar, was pronounced dead less than an hour after the incident. The investigation by Health and Safety Executive found NG Bailey Limited, the lead contractor for the project, had failed to consider overhead obstructions, especially during the trans..

A company in Kent has been fined after an accident occurred at a construction site of six houses on Smarden Road in Headcorn, Kent. A sub-contractor, had been installing vertical hanging tiles on one of the new properties when he fell 1.8 metres through an unguarded opening in scaffolding and landed on the ground below. The accident happened on the 5th July 2017 and resulted in Mark Tolley sustaining several broken ribs and serious internal injuries including a punctured lung. He later died on 13 July 2017. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has found that Amberley Homes (Kent) Ltd, a construction company in Kent, did not control the construction site eff..

A manufacturing company (Mifflin Construction Ltd manufacture and install steel components for the construction industry) has been fined £120,000 after a employee was fatally injured in the Leominster workshop. Steve Rooke, 55, an employee of over 27 years, sadly lost his life when a steal beam he was moving rotated and toppled over. The beam which was 18 metres long and weighed 1,800Kg trapped him against another beam causing fatal injuries. Karen Rooke, Steve’s wife said: "It’s changed everything, every plan we had has gone and our future is cancelled. I’ve lost a husband and the girls have lost a loving dad. He'll miss out on so many things like becoming a grandparent.” ..