Construction Company Sees Fine for Health and Safety
A construction worker almost died due to an incident with a fall wherein a 20 tonne cherry picker was involved. The picker was moving right into the path of a bus, which caused the worker to fall four metres onto the road. He was then pushed another 15 metres due to the two pieces of equipment hitting each other.
The HSE conducted health and safety audits of the incident to see where the fault might lie. The HSE found Galliford Try Construction guilty of violation of health and safety laws. The company did not provide adequate safety measures for the worker at heights. This left the worker injured, but thankfully alive. The worker was part of a two-man team working on the Pancras Renaissance Hotel and Chambers. The building was undergoing a 103 million pound restoration. The two workers removed the tape from the outside of the building. The scaffold was also removed as the work was almost done. The cherry picker needed to be moved from the apartment complex to the storage location. This is when the operator was moving out from a fenced area, but he was unaware that a double-decker bus was already on the road.
The second worker was trying to get the bus to stop and pay attention, but it was too dark and the driver did not see the man who was hit.
