A manufacturer of shopping trolleys has been fined £320,000 and ordered to pay costs of £4016 after two men fell approximately three metres when a metal cage they were dismantling collapsed beneath them. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the work had not been properly planned, appropriately supervised, or carried out in a manner that was safe.  No consideration was given to whether dismantling the structure could be carried out without working at height or if the work was within the capabilities of the company’s employees.  None of the employees involved were trained in the assembly of scaffolding towers, and the injured man was not trained in working at height.

A Leicestershire Quarry company has been fined £1,275,000 after a contractor was crushed to death during maintenance work. A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation into this incident found that the company had failed to ensure that the powers supply had been properly isolated before the repair work commenced. The test button on the conveyor electrical panel was not connected to the test circuit and was therefore inoperative. This issue appears to have existed for many years before the incident suggesting that critical defects had not been recorded and rectified in a timely manner. The company should have also provided a visual and audible pre-start alarm for the conveyor.

A West Yorkshire manufacturing company was fined £200,000 after three workers were injured by an explosion. The cause of the explosion was determined to be water entering the furnace during the addition of scrap metal. A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that Weir Minerals Europe Limited was aware of the risk associated with wet scrap metal being added to the furnace. However the protection from rain that was in place at the time of the incident was not adequately implemented and maintained