Lack of safe lifting zone in overcrowded site led to injury

A 58-year-old employee suffered multiple injuries after being hit by a heavy load on a congested residential building site in Victoria, London.

City of London Magistrates’ Court heard on 30 April that Stephen James, 58, had been directing crane drivers at the site, on 17 September 2007. He had been slinging a load of 20 strong back 2.7 metre steel girders in a basket hitch, set on two chains attached to a tower crane that was being moved across the site.

The court heard that as the load came down, it hit a long piece of reinforced bar protruding from the building at first-floor level. The chains came together, allowing the beams to slip from them onto the worker, who sustained severe damage to his right arm and leg and subsequently required a metal plate in his head.

Welwyn Garden City based John Doyle Construction was fined £2000 and told to pay partial costs of £17,466 after pleading guilty to breaching reg.8(1)(c) of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER) by not ensuring the lifting operation was carried out in a safe manner with appropriate supervision.

The company said in mitigation that although he was a recent employee, the worker was competent, had been trained and had worked on that particular site before. Other than having him supervised at all times, there was not anything else it could have done to prevent the incident. The injured man had been warned previously about lifting a load in an inappropriate manner and had departed from the lifting plan, which was to use slings to move the beams.

HSE inspector Monica Babb, who investigated the incident, said: “The terrible injuries Mr James suffered in this incident should and could have been avoided. This type of incident illustrates the importance of lifting operations being properly supervised and carried out in a safe manner. The site should have been tidier and there should have been a specific area set aside for lifting operations.”

John Doyle was also fined £3500 last October after a worker fell six metres from toppling scaffolding on a building in Liverpool.
 

Approaches to managing the risks associated Musculoskeletal disorders

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Matt, an ergonomics and human factors expert, shares his thoughts on why MSDs are important, the various prevalent rates across the UK, what you can do within your own organisation and the Risk Management process surrounding MSD’s.

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