A pharmacy company was fined £60,000 and ordered to pay £40,000 in costs after being found guilty at an earlier trial to breaching the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 following an incident when labourer sustained serious, life-changing injuries after striking a 415v electricity cable whilst refurbishing a building in central London.
A Rotherham steel maker was fined £ 180,000 and ordered to pay £82,980 costs following an incident in March 2012 when a furnace operative suffered life-threatening injuries.
A control system fault caused twenty-five tonnes of molten metal to spill from a furnace. Following the usual practice, the worker and a colleague began to hose water onto the spilled metal to cool it down. Soon after the water made contact, there was an explosion and the worker was covered in molten metal.
An investigation by HSE found that the company had no procedures for dealing with spillages of molten metal, no assessment of the dangers and risks had been carried out and there was no safe system of work in place.
A Ruabon, North Wales, ceramics firm was fined a total of £180,000, and ordered to pay £23,300 in costs following an incident in December 2012 when a maintenance supervisor, was killed whilst moving a power press.
An investigation by HSE found that the lifting operation had been unsafe and the deceased had not been adequately trained in undertaking the lifting of non-standard loads.
A High Wycombe commercial vehicle company was fined £166,000, and ordered to pay £46,500 for failing to provide a safe place for its staff to work which led to the death of one its employees in January 2014.
The deceased was hit by a heavy goods vehicle whose driver could not see what was immediately (up to six metres) in front of him, as the front grill of the HGV he was driving was raised. HSE stated that the fatality could have been prevented had the risks from the movement of heavy goods vehicles at this site been properly considered and effective segregation of pedestrians from moving vehicles been provided.