A steel company has been ordered to pay more than £146,000 in fines and costs after an engineer was crushed to death by a crane.
Wilred Williams, 57, was working as a maintenance engineer for C Brown & Sons (Steel) Ltd, when the incident took place, on 27 May 2011.
He had been asked to help change a drive wheel on an overhead travelling crane at the firm’s site in Dudley, West Midlands. In order to change the wheel he had to remove a buffer plate, which was positioned six-and-half metres up the crane.
He and another maintenance worker were lifted up to the plate in a cherry-picker. Mr Williams stepped on to the rail of the crane, while his colleague remained in the basket of the cherry-picker. He then carried out the work, despite not having been provided with a harness, or any other fall-prevention equipment.
When he was finished he then stepped on to the rail of an adjacent crane and sat down. The operator of the neighbouring crane was unaware that Mr Williams was sitting on the machine, and when he moved the crane, Mr Williams was crushed against an upright stanchion. He died at the scene from his injuries.
The HSE investigated the incident and found no safe system of work was in place to prevent crush injuries, or falls from height. Also, no measures were in place to ensure adjacent cranes were isolated in the bay while the work was taking place.
On 1 June 2011, the HSE issued the company a Prohibition Notice, which required similar work to stop until a safe system of work was created.
HSE inspector Angela Gallagher told SHP the company had been aware of the fall risks before the incident occurred. She said: “This tragic incident, which has had a devastating effect on Mr Williams’s family, was entirely preventable.
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This regrettably is very simlar in nature to other horrific accidents in the Steel Industry, they tend to have very poor organisational learning cultures and “old school” management within the industry. While this case is very sad, I am so glad I managed to get out of that industry.