A Darlington dustman narrowly escaped serious injury when he was crushed by his reversing wagon.
The man was rendered unconscious when the wagon crushed him against a wall in Salisbury Terrace, Darlington. The man who has not been named was taken to Darlington Memorial Hospital, where he required stitches to repair a head wound.
Another council employee describing the incident to the Darlington Northern Echo said; “The wagon was backing into a lane when it hit him with the bin lift.” He went on to say that the council employee was very fortunate not to have been more seriously injured and blamed the accident on increased pressure at work. “We have to cut corners a hell of a lot to save money,” he said.
Darlington County Council have refuted the claims and a spokesperson for the council said the incident would be fully investigated by the councils health and safety team, with appropriate action being taken to prevent any such incident happening in the future.
The dustman involved is still off work as a result of his injuries. It is not known if he will be pursuing a work accident compensation claim.
A Colchester engineer is claiming compensation of £300,000 after his hand was crushed in a machine at work.
Gary Finnigan from Bullfinch Close, Colchester was attempting to fix a problem with a piece of machinery when the accident happened. The Colchester Daily Gazette is reporting that, Mr Finnigan had to keep the machine operating while he was investigating a coolant leak. His hand became crushed when it was hit by a moving part of the machine.
Mr. Finnigans right hand is now almost useless after losing the fingers and part of his thumb. Despite re-constructive surgery Gary is still suffering pain and phantom feelings from the missing fingers.
The engineer is claiming that his employer Amtek Aluminium Castings, were negligent in their duties to protect him. He claims his training was inadequate and they never warned him about the moving part, or took adequate measures to prevent him coming into contact with it.
Mr. Finnigan is worried that he may be unable to continue with his engineering career as a result of his injuries, as simple day to day activities are a struggle.
The Witham based company declined to comment as they felt it would be inappropriate due to the impending legal action.
A father of two has been awarded £250,000 for a personal injury suffered at work. Fifty year old Peter Snowling from Halstead, Essex suffered spinal injuries and a fractured skull in the incident which has left him unable to continue working.
Peter was loading sacks of peas onto a lorry when he fell from a ramp in November of 2008, causing life changing injuries; Mr. Snowling said “It has changed my life. Although I am still here, there are a lot of things I can’t do now that I could do before”.
WA Church (Bures) Ltd the company involved in the incident have tried to find Mr. Snowling alternative employment within the firm but following a recent medical it would appear that his injuries could be far too severe.
Peter suffered 3 crushed vertebrae in the accident which due to near proximity to the spinal cord could not be safely operated on. He is now dependant on his wife Sheila for day to day tasks, as his memory has become impaired and he is not capable of lifting anything.
Mr. Snowling accepted the £250,000 in an out of court settlement saying; “This sum is all I have to live on now because it’s highly unlikely I will work again.”
A Carmarthen construction worker spent nine months in hospital after suffering a horrendous fall. Twenty one year old Gwydaf Davies was helping to re-roof a farm building when he fell three metres landing on a concrete floor.
Mr. Davies suffered extensive injuries in the incident including multiple fractures, a serious brain injury and damage to his spine. Facial reconstruction surgery was required after the accident but Mr. Davies has been left with severe injuries including blindness in one eye, only partial sight in the other, a speech defect and difficulty walking.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation into the incident decided that the company’s supervision of the work was not carried out in a safe manner, with little done to protect workers falling.
Delme L James Ltd were fined £8,000 at Haverfordwest magistrate’s court and ordered to pay costs of just over £2,189.
Mr. Davies is expected to receive significant injury compensation for his accident but his claim is still ongoing, the company involved were said to be deeply remorseful about the incident.
The construction industry remains one of the most dangerous industries in which to work, with 41 deaths in 2009/10 according to figures released by the HSE.
A worker who was left disabled by an accident at work has received a compensation claim payout of £50,000 from a businessman.
In November 2006 Gary Hounsome, was struck by a falling pallet of marble tiles whilst he helped to unload them from a container. Mr Hounsome suffered severe injuries which included multiple fractures and has since undergone a variety of surgical procedures to correct the injuries.
It was said in court; the premises where the accident at work took place were owned by Joe Samtani and leased to Iraj Tohidi. It is said that Tohidi did not pay his rent and that Samtani paid for the pallet of tiles.
Dorchester Crown Court found Mr Samtani guilty of breaking the health and safety laws. They fined him £30,000 and made him pay Mr Hounsome £50,000 in compensation as well as the £25,000 costs.
Mr Samtani has been ordered to re pay £20,000 in legal aid and has been given 12 months to pay the compensation claim payout. If he fails to do so Mr Samtani will face 18 months in prison.
A £30,000 fine was imposed from Castle Bromwich, Birmingham the firm Dura Automotive Body and Glass Systems UK
The car components firm was fined after a manufacturing robot struck Michael Brewer a worker at the company, causing damage to his voice box and nearly paralysing him down one side of his body.
Mr. Brewer was injured while attempting to fix a fully-automated industrial robot in May 2008.
Health and Safety Executive (HSE) launched an investigation and discovered that the firm had a system of accessing the robot by putting it on manual before entry rather on the full automatic cycle.
Health and Safety Executive inspectors also found that staff would watch the operating cycle from inside the guarded zone.
They concluded that company had failed to carry out an adequate risk assessment to the risks posed to maintenance staff by operating the industrial robots when staff are within the guarded area.
The company was also ordered to pay costs of £20,000 by the Crown Court in Birmingham.
Edward Fry an inspector at HSE said: “This is a prime example of a company failing to address the risks relating to maintenance work.”
It possible that Mr. Brewer will be pursuing a claim for compensation.
A spokes person for Ashley Ainsworth one of the UK leading companies based in Cheshire, that deals with accident at work compensation said “Employers should make more effort in providing risk assessments to protect their work force”
The University of Warwick has been fined £3000 after a man suffered severe arm injuries in an accident at work.
Agency worker Gareth Keal was working at the institution’s horticultural research site in October 2008. He was using a bulb harvesting machine that had been mounted on a tractor when his hand became trapped between the rollers inside it.
His arm was pulled into the device up to his shoulder, leaving him with painful injuries including soft-tissue, muscle, tendon and ligament damage.
It was found that the machine had failed to meet certain health and safety regulations. It had been modified from a potato harvester before being supplied to Mr Keal’s contactors Standen Engineering Ltd.
The University pleaded guilty to Regulation 11 (1a) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 at a hearing at Boston Magistrates’ Court. Along with their £3000 fine, they were also ordered to pay just over £2000 in court costs.
Standen Engineering Ltd were also fined a total of £2500 after admitted their failure to provide safe machinery to a worker.
A company has been fined by the Health and Safety Executive following the death of an employee in the workplace.
Peter Clarke, 57, suffered fatal injuries when his head was crushed between concrete blocks and a metal platform at the site of Hanson Building Products Ltd in April 2008.
Mr Clarke had the responsibility of quality checking concrete blocks that were being moved on a conveyor from a kiln to a packaging area.
The conveyor belt could be controlled by an operator, and moved to the desired position in order to sort out the sizes of concrete blocks before they were packaged.
Mr Clarke, who had only been working for the company for two weeks, was standing next to the conveyor when the unaware operator moved it, meaning he was crushed and subsequently killed.
An investigation carried out after the incident found that the company’s risk assessments had only found a danger to workers trapping their fingers.
A HSE spokesperson said: “There were no safe systems of work for removing the blocks and the company failed to supervise Mr Clarke adequately. The area where he was working was well known as a danger zone by other workers, but he had been on site for less that two weeks and nobody had told him about the risks.”
The organisation was ordered to pay £280,000, plus costs of £29,204 during a hearing at Warwick Crown Court last week. They admitted to breaches of Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
A company from Greater Manchester has been fined after an employee suffered a nasty workplace accident.
ADA Machining Services, based in Ashton-under-Lyne, were ordered to pay £26,000 for breaches of health and safety regulations.
The worker, who asked to remain anonymous, was seriously injured when he became trapped in a metal shaping machine in January 2008.
He lost a finger, suffered 12 broken ribs and cracked his breast bone. He also sustained friction burns to the left side of his body.
It was found that the company had not installed an appropriate safety guard on the machine to protect employees from the dangerous moving parts inside it.
The employee has been unable to return to work since the accident two-and-a-half years ago.
A HSE inspector said: “It’s vital that companies take action to protect employees who are required to operate potentially dangerous machinery. Otherwise workers will continue to be injured in the future.”
A £250,000 accident at work claim for compensation has been launched against British Airways after a worker dislocated his shoulder in December 2007 when he slipped and fell, whilst helping someone move a trailer that had been left in the wrong place.
The worker from British Airways said he still suffers pain when carrying out day to day tasks such as driving and getting milk out of the fridge and hasn’t been able to work since the accident.
The man said there was no improvement after three or four months of the dislocation and ended up having an MRI scan which showed all the tendons had been torn.
He had an operation to try and repair the tendons but it didn’t do much good and may now need to shoulder replacement to help reduce pain which he has in his shoulde.
His solicitors have told him he could make a claim for compensation of up to £250,000 for his personal injury due to the physical pain and suffering as well as the loss of six years pay and pension.
The British Airways worker has said if it was not for his accident at work, he would have worked for a further five or six years.
British Airways’ insurers have admitted liability for the accident at work and it is thought that both sides are unable to agree the amount for the claim for compensation.
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