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Spring 2023 33 www.hae.org.uk www.eha.org.uk CIVIL ENGINEERINGFIRMMUST PAYOUT £4MFOLLOWINGM6WORKS Civil engineering firm Kier has been fined more than £4m after its staff twice struck overhead powerlines while working on the M6 motorway, causing cables to land in the path of passing vehicles. In one incident, an overhead cable the Kier workers brought down hit a lorry. The second time, a cable landed on the motorway. An investigation by workplace regulator the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found after one incident Kier workers failed to immediately tell the network provider, Scottish Power, what they had done. Both incidents happened on overnight road works part of the smart motorway scheme between junctions 16 and 18 near Sandbach in Cheshire. During the first incident, a team of three from Kier were working a nightshift in March 2018. The workers were clearing tarmac from the hard shoulder and loading a truck with a digger. As they moved the truck along with an attached loading bucket raised it struck and severed a 11kV overhead powerline that landed in the motorway and in a nearby field. The company failed to immediately tell Scottish Power, which meant the cable was reenergised a number of times while it was lying on the motorway and vehicles were passing. During the second incident, another team from Kier were taking down a motorway barrier in January 2019. Their crane struck an overhead cable which led to an unmarked 11kV powerline being hit and snapped by an oncoming lorry. HSE found that inadequate planning from Kier meant the vehicle used in the first incident was unsuitable despite other more suitable vehicles being available. There was also no task-specific risk assessment available for the workers. In the second incident, the workers were unaware of the overhead hazards. In relation to the first incident, Kier Infrastructure and Overseas Limited, of Clippers Quay, Salford pleaded guilty to breaching Sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. In relation to the second incident, they pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and Regulation 13(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. In total, the company was fined £4.415m and ordered to pay costs of £80,759.60 at Manchester Crown Court. FOODCOMPANY TOPAY £858,000 AFTERWORKER LOSES ARM A food production company has been fined £858,000 after an employee had his arm amputated after becoming entangled in an industrial food mixer. Lee Simpson was removing filling ingredients from a paddle mixer, from which the contents could be removed at the front, at David Wood Baking Limited’s premises in Sheerness, Kent when his right hand and arm were drawn in. Lee, from Sheerness, who was 26 at the time, had to have his arm surgically removed. He said he has now lost much of his independence. He said: “Life has changed so much since the accident and I am doing everything I can to improve, but it will never be the same. Since my accident I have become dependent on others, primarily my family and fiancée, to complete daily activities for me, such as cooking and domestic tasks such as doing the laundry.” The incident happened in September 2021 at the Mill House, Dorset Road, Sheerness, where David Wood Baking Limited makes sausage rolls, quiches and other food products. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the control measures in place to prevent contact with moving parts were ineffective as the guarding of the mixer was routinely not replaced after cleaning. The ‘interlocking’ system was also defeated which meant the mixer would still operate without the front guard in place, putting employees, including Mr Simpson, at risk when operating it. David Wood Baking Limited pleaded guilty to breaches under the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, Regulation 11(1)(b) and was fined £858,000 and ordered to pay £8,000 costs at Folkestone Magistrates Court. >>