Health and Safety Fines Outlined for Burned Worker
An engineering company has been fined due to an incident wherein a worker was burned. The worker sustained life-threatening injuries when he struck a high voltage cable. The cable was at a construction site at the new Crossrail rail area. Fugro Engineering was in charge of the area and should have conducted a series of investigations as part of the project.
In 2008, an employee was injured when he used a hydraulic breaker to inspect a pit for a hole outside of London. He was struck with the cable and suffered burns on 60% of his body. The employee was 63 years old in 2008 when the incident occurred.
The HSE investigating through health and safety audits found that the system in the workplace did not clearly define the dangers that could occur during the investigations. There were clearly issues with communication and health and safety training regarding the proper way to conduct the employees’ digging investigations.
It was also found that key documents about health and safety were not supplied. The documents would have alerted workers to where the cables were and where to create boreholes for the investigations. It was definitely foreseeable to overlook the electric cable that caused the incident, especially on the busy street in London. If proper training and supervision was supplied the injuries might not have occurred. The company did plead guilty to breaking Section 2(1) of the safety act. They will pay £55,000 in fines and £30,000 in additional costs.
