30th October 2017
Director Held ‘Personally Responsible’ in H&S Prosecution
What has happened?
A demolition company and its director have been sentenced after a worker suffered serious crush injuries when his arms were trapped between two 10 tonne steel girders.
What went wrong?
The managing director of S.Evans & Sons Limited was operating machinery to stack girders when he dropped one onto and employee’s arms. The injuries were so severe that this resulted in amputation to the left arm and right hand.
The subsequent HSE investigation found the company failed to apply appropriate control measures including ensuring the right equipment was used for the task. The managing director, Samuel Evans, was directly involved in the incident and found personally responsible for both the choice in equipment and the manner in which the task was performed.
Sentencing
Evans and Sons Limited of Ditton Road, Widnes pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 and Regulation 4 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. The company has been fined £150,000 and ordered to pay costs of £9,523.04.
Company director, Samuel Evans, pleaded guilty to breaching two counts of Section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, in relation to the company’s failing of Section 2 of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 and Regulation 4 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.
Evans was sentenced to ten months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years and ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work.
Commenting after the hearing, The HSE Inspector involved in the case said: “If the company and its director had taken basic steps to decide how to do this routine task, and what control measures to use, they could have prevented this devastating incident resulting in an employee suffering life-changing injuries.”
