With low temperatures and less daylight, surfaces in winter become hazardous and slips and trips increase. Slips and trips remain the most common accident to employees, making up 29% of incidents reported. Over 693,000 workers sustained a non fatal injury during 2019/20.

HSE have issued a guide to help avoid slips and trips in winter. Avoiding slips and trips 

Global Fleet Champions have produced guidance for fleet managers on ensuring safe journeys during adverse weather conditions. It covers the risks of driving in different weather conditions; how safe driving techniques and good vehicle maintenance can help minimise road danger during bad weather; and technologies to help fleet managers predict bad weather, and plan or re-route journeys to avoid it.

Driving in adverse weather full guidance

A and D Logistics Limited, a national logistics haulier, has been fined after a worker suffered flash burn injuries when there was an explosion as he opened the door of a container.

On 7 January 2019, a team leader was requested by a member of the management team to dry out condensation from the office accommodation container. The custom and practice within the yard was to use a propane fuelled open-flame gas torch attached to a 47Kg LPG cylinder which was left burning within the container.

The team leader did this work and returned four hours later to check on progress of the container. The door appeared closed further than when he had left it. He opened the door by putting his hand in the gap between the doors and pulling. There was an explosion and he was thrown by force against a steel workshop container. Whilst on the ground he saw his arms burning, saw they were on fire, and felt the same of his face and hair.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that:

1) The company allowed the gas torch and propane cylinder to be left unattended with the torch lit whilst the
team leader attended other work.
2) The container did not contain sufficient oxygen to support safe combustion because of inadequate
ventilation.
3) Yard personnel had no ‘hot work’ training.
4) The workwear worn by the team leader was not suitable for ‘hot work’ activities.
5) Formal training and instruction for drying out wet containers with a propane gas torch was absent.

A and D Logistics Limited, Pegausus Avenue, Linwood, Paisley pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 of the Health and Safety at work etc Act 1974 and was fined £48,000.

Speaking after the hearing HSE inspector Tom Allan said: “This incident could so easily have been avoided by simply carrying out control measures and safe working practices.”

HSE

A Glasgow based company has admitted a health and safety offence after an employee fell through a fragile plasterboard ceiling, sustaining life-changing injuries.

Alfa (Wholesale) Limited, a wholesale grocery, catering supply and household goods company, pled guilty to a contravention of Sections 2(1) and Section 33(1)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 at Glasgow Sheriff Court on 20 November 2020. It was fined £120,000.
The court heard that on the 5 November 2017 a 24-year-old warehouseman was retrieving stock from a mezzanine in the company’s warehouse in the city’s Lancefield Street when he stepped on to an unguarded area of fragile plasterboard.

The employee fell through the plasterboard, landing on a concrete floor at the bottom of a stairwell. A drop of more than five metres. He was taken to hospital where he was initially unresponsive and diagnosed as having a skull fracture, bleeding on the brain and other significant injuries.
He has been left with cognitive difficulties, hearing loss, facial palsy and problems tasting food and the family has been significantly impacted.

The case was investigated by Glasgow City Council who found that the company had a generic risk assessment for a wide variety of activities within the premises. The risk assessment did not refer to or identify any risks associated with working on or accessing the mezzanine level. The company had not implemented any control measures for employees working near the plasterboard. Stock was being stored very close to the plasterboard and employees were regularly called upon to access this area to retrieve stock.
The investigation found that it was entirely foreseeable that an employee might step onto this unguarded plasterboard. The incident had happened as a result of the company’s failure to identify the risks of staff accessing the stock items stored near to the plasterboard ceiling on the mezzanine area.
Since the incident, the company has changed its working practices.

Alistair Duncan, Head of Health and Safety Division said: “This was a foreseeable and avoidable accident resulting in the severe injury and permanent impairment of a young man. It is easy to imagine this having been a fatality. “Alfa (Wholesale) Limited accepted liability and the Crown accepted their guilty plea to the contraventions of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

“This was an accident that resulted in life changing injuries that could have been avoided if the appropriate measures had been in place at the time.

“Hopefully this prosecution and the sentence will remind other employers that failure to fulfil their obligations can have serious consequences and that they will be held to account for their failings.”

COPFS
November 2020

Chemical company, Reckitt Benckiser Healthcare (UK) Ltd (Reckitt Benckiser Ltd), was fined for safety breaches after a worker had his left arm crushed in a bottle filling machine.

Grimsby Magistrates Court heard how on 9 September 2017, the 25-year-old worker suffered an open crush injury to his left forearm at the company’s site in Dansom Lane South, Kingston upon Hull. He also sustained tendon damage to the forearm, wrist and hand.

Investigating, the HSE found that the filling machine had not been electronically isolated and locked off by the injured person, or other persons, which would have ensured that the recalibration task could be carried out in a safe manner.

Reckitt Benckiser Ltd of Dansom Lane, Hull pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company has been fined £200,000 and ordered to pay £8,261.28 in costs.
Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector David Stewart said: “Non-routine maintenance tasks must be carried out by trained personnel working to standard safe operating procedures.

“Reckitt Benckiser should have developed a standard operating procedure for the adjustment process, which if implemented correctly along with their lock off procedure, could have prevented the incident.”

HSE
December 2020