It was reported by Commercial Motor yesterday that the United Road Transport Union (URTU) were raided by the Greater Manchester Police, where seven men were arrested and released on bail for fraud offences relating to Driver CPC.

This incident comes after the removal of their Driver CPC training approval by JAUPT back in December 2011 following a course that was held by URTU on September 4th 2011, for which there were 31 candidates present. Each driver paid £20 for the course, which included lunch.

Following the completion of the course two formal complaints were made to the DSA, noting that although the training was logged at 7 hours, the course began at 9am and ended at 2:15pm, with two 40 minute breaks inbetween. There were also some concerns regarding the quality of the training that the candidates had received. At the time this latest news went to press URTU were unavailable for comment.

The United Road Transport Union (URTU) became the first organisation in the UK to have their Driver CPC training approval removed by JAUPT and this news is a stark reminder why every Driver CPC training provider must adhere to regulations.

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A 23-year-old Keighley man died from massive crush injuries when his head became trapped in the jaws of a grab machine being wrongly used to move a pallet of cement bags.

Steven Allen was part of a team working for Skipton-based construction company JN Bentley Ltd on a building project for Bradford Council in Manningham in March 2007. Moving the 30 or so cement bags was to be the last job before the weekend when the incident happened.

Bradford Crown Court heard this week (25-27 January) that workers used a block grab attached to an excavator to move the load. As they did, the bags fell two metres to the ground, but the pallet remained in the jaws of the block grab. The pallet pivoted and Steven Allen took hold of it to pull it free. As the pallet came away, the jaws dropped and clamped on Steven's head, causing severe injuries. He died the following day.

After an investigation, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) mounted the prosecution against Mr Allen's employers. The court was told the HSE's findings revealed that the grab was being used against manufacturer's instructions and was not suitable for the job. Block grabs are designed to lift and move rectangular loads strapped together such as packs of bricks. The company had also failed to implement a safe system for lifting and transporting the bags of cement.

J N Bentley Ltd of Keighley Road, Skipton, North Yorkshire, had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. They were fined £106,250 and ordered to pay costs of £90,000.

HSE Principal Inspector, Dave Redman, said:

"The firm made a fundamental error by using a block grab to lift and move pallets and this resulted in the tragic death of a young man. This use was very clearly advised against by the manufacturers and the risks should have been understood by the company.
A block grab mechanism that was involved. It was attached to an excavator and wrongly used to move a pallet of cement bags.

A block grab mechanism that was involved. It was attached to an excavator and wrongly used to move a pallet of cement bags.

"Nevertheless, they allowed machinery to be used on their site which was totally unsuitable for the task. No assessment was made regarding the use of the grab and no instructions were given to the men who were operating it. Planning to make sure that work is carried out safely is not a formality or a tick-box exercise but is crucial to identifying and controlling risks.

"It shouldn't take a death to remind employers that failure to properly plan the work can have tragic consequences. An alternative way of lifting the pallet should have been used. Pallets are designed to be lifted using fork attachments which could have been fitted to the excavator. This would have prevented the incident which led to Steven Allen's death. If employers take their eye off the ball, it's all too easy for otherwise safe and routine tasks to turn into unacceptable risks."

Steven's mother Judith Allen said after the hearing:

"Whatever happens in court I know how unsafe working conditions led directly to my son's death, and the ripple effect it has had on the lives of my family and the lives of his friends.

"The effects of Steven's death continue to affect us all severely. Whatever fines are imposed it does not alter the fact that I have had my son taken from me, before he had chance to grow into the fine young man I know he would have become. This may be the end as far as prosecutions go, but our lives are blighted forever. The only consolation will be if it stops something like this happening again, and makes workers and the public far more aware than I was before Steven died, of the risks employers take with workers' lives in trying to save money."

To view this news story on the HSE website click here

Notes to editors

The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to prevent death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice, promoting training, new or revised regulations and codes of practice, and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk

Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states: "It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees."
HSE news releases are available at www.hse.gov.uk/press.

HSE Press releases can be view at

http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/

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A recycling company in Rotherham displayed "a blatant disregard" for the safety of 120 workers by failing to protect them properly against dangerous parts of cutting and crushing equipment.
Parts of the Universal Recycling site in Mexborough, near Rotherham, taken during the HSE investigation last year

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) uncovered a catalogue of safety breaches during an inspection of the Universal Recycling Company site in Wharf Road, Kilnhust, Mexborough, in May 2010. The HSE found failings both in the yard and in the machine shop and had to return for a second day to complete the investigation.

There were so many apparent failings at the facility that inspectors took immediate enforcement action, issuing three Prohibition Notices to halt further work in some areas. Two Improvement Notices were later served giving the firm time to take effective remedial action.
The investigation exposed several examples where there were no or inadequate safeguards in place to prevent access to dangerous or moving parts of machinery, including chopping machines, shredding and crushing machinery, conveyors, pulleys, chain drives and belts and rollers.

Rotherham Magistrates' Court heard that London Wiper Company Ltd of Kettering, Northants, trading as Universal Recycling Company, failed to comply with the two Improvement Notices by August 2010, despite being granted an extension.

The HSE, which brought the prosecution, told the court that when the site was visited again, there were still several instances of inadequate guarding against access to dangerous machine parts. There were also trapping points from exposed drive belts and pulleys. Some guards put in place were ineffective and one was held in place by a rope.

Inspector Denise Fotheringham said after the hearing:
"Universal Recycling Company has shown a blatant disregard for the law and for the safety of their workers. The company was given every opportunity to comply with the requirements of the Improvement Notices and they did not do so. They were provided with detailed verbal advice, a letter and photographs highlighting areas requiring improvement, given an extension of time and further advice.

"Enforcement notices are issued for a reason and HSE will not tolerate non-compliance - we will prosecute. Failure to guard machines to acceptable standards results in disabling and even fatal incidents every year."

The London Wiper Company pleaded guilty to two offences of charges of non-compliance with an Improvement Notice and was fined a total of £8,000 and ordered to pay £5,000 costs.

The combined fatal and major injury rate in waste and recycling is more than four times the average across all industries. Three people were killed and a total of 530 major injuries to employees in waste and recycling were reported in 2009/10. A further 2,100 plus injuries were reported keeping workers off for more than three days.

To View this press release via the HSE Website Click Here

Notes to editors
1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to prevent death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice, promoting training, new or revised regulations and codes of practice, and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk
2. Section 33(1)(g) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states: "It is an offence for a person to contravene any requirement or prohibition imposed by an improvement notice or a prohibition notice."

http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/

Please see the HSE Website for information and Statistics

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A Lincolnshire farming company has been fined after a worker was hit by a forklift truck.

Agency worker Algis Jevsejevas, 45, fractured his left leg in the incident at CW Dobbs and Son's premises near Spalding on 21 October 2010.

Mr Jevsejevas, who was living in Kings Lynn at the time of the incident but has since returned to his home in Lithuania, was walking across the floor of a potato grading shed to get labels for boxes when he was hit by the reversing vehicle.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found the company had failed to ensure the shed was organised in such a way that vehicles and pedestrians could move around safely.

After the hearing HSE inspector Neil Ward said:

"This incident need not have happened. The company should have made sure, so far as was reasonably practicable, that there was physical segregation between its workers and its vehicles.

"Since the incident, the farmer has put up a barrier but has also moved the labels to another part of the shed, next to the grading line, so people don't have to walk across the shed. This goes to show how simple and inexpensive preventative measures can be."

CW Dobbs and Son Ltd, of Home Farm, Hollands Chase, West Pinchbeck, Spalding, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4(1) of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 at Spalding Magistrates' Court today. The company was fined £7,000 and ordered to pay £2,588 costs.

To view this press release via the HSE website click - HERE

Notes to editors

1.The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to prevent death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice, promoting training, new or revised regulations and codes of practice, and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk
2.Regulation 4(1) of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 states: "Every employer shall ensure that every workplace, modification, extension or conversion which is under his control and where any of his employees works complies with any requirement of these Regulations which- a.applies to that workplace or, as the case may be, to the workplace which contains that modification, extension or conversion; and
b.is in force in respect of the workplace, modification, extension or conversion."

HSE statistics can be found at

www.hse.gov.uk/statistics

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Businesses are being reminded about new incident reporting arrangements being introduced from today (Monday 12 September).

Only fatal and major injuries and incidents will be able to be reported by phone to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), with all other work-related injuries and incidents reportable under RIDDOR (see notes to editors) to be reported via one of a suite of seven online forms available on HSE's website.

Said Trevor Carlile, HSE's Director of Strategy:

"This should not be a significant change for many, as more than half of reportable injuries are already notified to HSE through the website. The new forms are intuitive and quick and easy to complete. The most important thing is that there will still be somebody at the end of the phone to assist those who are reporting a traumatic event that has resulted in a death or major injury.

Later this month, HSE's Infoline telephone service which currently provides a basic information service to callers will end. Instead, from 30 September, those seeking information and official guidance will be directed to HSE's website - a huge knowledge bank where they can access and download resources and use interactive web tools free of charge.

Various improvements have been made to HSE's website to coincide with the closure of Infoline. There is clearer information on what HSE does and doesn't do, so people can check that HSE is the right organisation to assist them, and expanded 'question & answer' sections for the most frequent health and safety enquiries such as those on RIDDOR reporting and First Aid.

Added Trevor Carlile:

"HSE's website is already overwhelmingly the most popular option for accessing health and safety information. We're confident that our web services can be efficient and effective at a fraction of the cost per contact compared with telephone services. We'll continue to make improvements to make the website as intuitive and easy-to-use as possible."

HSE continues to provide information and guidance to employers and workers in a range of other ways: through direct work with organisations and trade associations, face-to-face at workshops and safety training days and via books and eBulletins. A comprehensive suite of health and safety advice is also available via the Government's website for businesses "Businesslink.gov", and DirectGov.

People will still be able to make complaints about health and safety in the workplace. For more information on how to do this visit http://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/workplace-complaints.htm[1] (to be updated from 30 September)

Changes to HSE incident reporting and information services come into effect Monday 12th September 2011

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