Transport for London (TfL) and Tram Operations Limited (TOL) have been fined a total of £14m after pleading guilty to offences under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, which followed an investigation and prosecution by industry regulator the Office of Rail and Road (ORR).

Seven people died and many were injured, 19 seriously, when a tram, travelling in poor weather and at three times the speed permitted, overturned approaching Sandilands junction in Croydon on 9 November 2016. Of the 69 passengers on the tram, only one escaped injury.

Each company pleaded guilty to offences alleging that they had failed to do everything that was reasonably practicable to ensure the safety of passengers on the tram network. Neither company had performed a suitable or sufficient assessment of the risks of a high-speed derailment on the network.

TfL, which owns and maintains the infrastructure used by the Croydon tram network, was fined a total of £10m. TOL, which operates the network, was fined a total of £4m.

Since the accident, new safety measures and systems have been implemented following recommendations from the Rail Accident Investigations Branch and oversight by ORR.

These include new systems to prevent trams over-speeding around tight curves, improvements in managing driver attentiveness and more signage and chevrons at the Sandilands curve and at other high-risk areas along the track.

The tramway sector has also instituted a new safety and standards body, the Light Rail Safety and Standards Board (LRSSB), the purpose of which includes improving the sector’s understanding of risk and setting recognized industry standards.

This is valid as of 31st July 2023.

(Australia)

A1 Arbor Tree Services Pty Ltd has been convicted and fined $2.025 million dollars in the NSW District Court over the death of a worker who was killed while using a woodchipper in 2019.

The multi-million-dollar penalty is the single largest court imposed fine for a business in the State.

The court heard that on 7 September 2019 A1 Arbor Tree Services was in Lindfield to remove trees from the grounds of a local school, where a 40-year-old victim, a Fijian national, was fatally injured.

The court heard A1 Arbor did not complete a risk assessment of the equipment, which had several defects. The court also heard there was little supervision of workers and workers did not receive training to operate the equipment.

A1 Arbor Tree Services Pty Ltd pleaded guilty to failing to comply with its safety obligations under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011.

Her Honour Judge Strathdee noted during sentencing the foreseeable harm to the 40-year-old man was extreme and determined the record $2.025 million fine was appropriate.

A1 Arbor has a right to appeal the decision.

This is valid as of 31st July 2023.

(United States)

Not yet a month on the job, a 21-year-old working at a sawmill operation site in Brashear was learning how to operate a Hurdle saw on 11 January 2023, when he suffered fatal injuries after getting caught and pulled into the vertical edger blades as they spun.

His employer, Don Gibson, owner of Missouri Mats, failed to notify the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) that the fatality occurred, which delayed OSHA’s investigation of the incident until 18 January 2023. When investigators arrived at the work site, they issued Gibson a letter that required the company to protect employees from amputation hazards at the sawmill. The letter also directed Gibson to report to OSHA that the mill had corrected the hazard.

When OSHA inspectors returned on 1 March 2023, to continue their investigation, they discovered that Gibson failed to implement necessary controls and procedures for the sawmill and that his employees continued to operate the saw in the same condition which resulted in the death of his employee. The agency placed an imminent danger notice on the saw, which finally prompted Gibson to correct the sawmill’s safety failure.

Inspectors also learned the company knew that sawmill operators let the vertical edger continue to spin while inspecting the machine, which is large enough to cut full logs, but did not correct the procedure or re-train workers on how to use the machine safely.

OSHA cited the company for two willful, 53 serious, and two other than-serious safety and health violations and proposed $346,954 in penalties. OSHA also placed the company in its Severe Violator Enforcement Program.

While at Missouri Mats, the agency’s investigators observed workers younger than 18 years old employed at the sawmill and operating heavy-powered industrial trucks and alerted the department’s Wage and Hour Division. Federal law prohibits minors from working in hazardous occupations.

OSHA Regional Administrator Billie Kizer in Kansas City, Missouri said: “After a young man, new to the job, died after suffering horrific injuries, Don Gibson and the Missouri Mats’ management team continued to use the equipment involved in the fatality without taking appropriate steps to eliminate the danger and protect employees. Deadly hazards exist in the sawmill and logging industries, and it is essential that Gibson and others in the industry follow federal safety requirements.”

This is valid as of 24th July 2023.

A manufacturing company has been fined following reports that two of its employees had been diagnosed with hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS).

The two staff members at Ross and Catherall Limited – a company that manufactures and supplies metal bars for the aerospace and automotive industries – worked at the firm’s Forge Lane site in Killamarsh, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, in 2019.

The two employees carried out a variety of tasks, which included the use of vibrating tools, throughout the company’s manufacturing process. Both operators used these tools for extended periods of time, over a number of years, without adequate systems in place to control their exposure to vibration.

RIDDOR reports submitted by Ross and Catherall Limited in May 2019 revealed the employees had been diagnosed with HAVS. The RIDDOR reports prompted a HSE investigation.

The HSE investigation found:

• There was no hand-arm vibration risk assessment in place prior to, and at the time of the workers’ diagnoses, to identify what level of vibration the operators were exposed to.
• There were no control measures in place to reduce exposure levels, with reasonably practicable measures only being implemented following HSE’s intervention.
• Health surveillance was inadequate. This was not carried out annually and there was no initial health surveillance assessment for new operators. Additionally, referrals were not carried out in a timely manner for those employees displaying symptoms of HAVS.

Ross and Catherall Limited, of Bretby Business Park, Ashby Road, Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The company was fined £200,000 and ordered to pay £7605.37 in costs at Derby Magistrates’ Court on 17 July 2023.

This is valid as of 24th July 2023.

(Australia)

A private college in Adelaide has been fined $420,000 after one of its students drowned during a school excursion.

A SafeWork SA investigation found that Pinnacle College breached their work health and safety duty by failing to provide safe extra-curricular activities for their students.

In March 2021, a 16-year-old student of Pinnacle College drowned while rock fishing on a school excursion, after he jumped into the sea to rescue another student who had lost his balance and fallen off the rocks.

Considered one of Australia’s most dangerous sports, rock fishing accounts for 4% of all drowning deaths in Australia.

The investigation found the students of Pinnacle College were not provided with life jackets and non-slip shoes were not considered necessary for the excursion.

Teachers supervising students during the excursion did not have any work health or safety training even though the school had identified rock fishing was a risk identified on the excursion permission slip.

In sentencing, His Honour Deputy President Judge Crawley noted that the risk of serious injury or death should have been obvious to the school.

SafeWork SA found that Pinnacle College breached the duties under the Work Health and Safety Act 2012 (WHS Act) and were charged with:

• Failure to comply with their work health and safety duty so that the health and safety of students was not put at risk from the work carried out as part of the business.
• Failure to provide and maintain, as far as was reasonably practicable, a safe system of work for the provision of extra-curricular services, because it failed to perform an adequate hazard identification and risk assessment process specific to the excursion and then ensure that measures were put in place to eliminate and/or minimise the identified risks.

Pinnacle College pleaded guilty in the South Australian Employments Tribunal (SAET) for breaches of the WHS Act.

The school has since reviewed their excursion policy and employed a work health and safety compliance officer.

The SAET convicted Pinnacle College and imposed an initial fine of $700,000, reduced to $420,000 following a 40% discount for early guilty plea.

Further payments of $2,163 for informant’s costs and a victims of crime levy in the sum of $405 were also ordered.

This is valid as of 24th July 2023.

A manager who was called a homophobic slur during workplace “banter” has won £15,400 in a discrimination claim.

Mandy Fleming, who was manager for 25 years at refurbishment specialist McGill, was told employees should sit “boy-girl-boy-girl” in the office, although the majority of employees, she said, were female.

When Fleming asked a male colleague if she would be sitting near a female colleague in December 2021, he laughed and said: “You dykes sit at the top,” the tribunal heard.

Fleming was left upset and embarrassed by the comment and dreaded going to work, crying on the phone to her husband every day from the car park. When she complained to the company, her employer said it was workplace banter.

Fleming eventually resigned in February 2022 after being told that many people at the company knew of the matter.

The tribunal ruled that she had been harassed and forced out of her job and ordered the company to pay her £15,406 in compensation, including £2,000 for injury to feelings.

Aisling Foley, solicitor in the employment team at law firm SAS Daniels said the “banter” defence is generally unlikely to be successful: “In cases such as these involving claims for harassment and bullying, a tribunal will look at both the intention and the effect of the comment or behaviour on the employee.

“Even if a comment is not intended to cause offence, which can sometimes be the case in ‘banter’ scenarios, this is not a get out of jail free card. If the employee was nonetheless offended by the comment, this could be enough for a successful claim.”

Around a third (32%) of people in the UK have been bullied at work by comments disguised as banter, according to research.

Discover practical strategies for preventing and addressing workplace bullying by reading our in-depth guide on ‘Managing Bullying and Harassment at Work: Expert Insights on Prevention and Action’ here.

This is valid as of 24th July 2023.

A Welsh company that manufactures kitchen and toilet tissue paper has been fined £1 million after an employee was seriously injured when he was struck in the face by a crane hook.

On 5 November 2019, the man who worked for Sofidel UK Limited based in Neath, was attempting to free a paper reel, which had become stuck on the exit rails of a paper machine, by using an overhead crane.

During the operation, part of the crane contacted the spinning reel causing the crane hook to swing violently striking the man in the face. He suffered the loss of an eye, multiple fractures to the face and lost 9 teeth.

Investigating, the HSE found that Sofidel UK Limited, based at Brunel Way, Baglan Energy Park, Briton Ferry, Neath, failed to:

• Carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment to identify the hazards posed by paper reels which did not eject correctly from the machine.
• Ensure that control measures were in place and that employees were provided with information and instructions on what to do should this situation arise.

The issue was happening regularly, yet no risk assessment had been undertaken despite operators being provided with basic equipment to use in these circumstances.

At Swansea Magistrates’ Court, Sofidel UK Limited pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. They were fined £1million and ordered to pay costs of £13,446.50.

This is valid as of 24th July 2023.

Energy firm BP has been found guilty of breaching health and safety laws after a worker died when he fell from an offshore platform into the sea.

Sean Anderson, 43, fell through an open grating on the Unity installation, about 112 miles (180km) north-east of Aberdeen, on 4 September 2014. Mr Anderson, from the Tyne and Wear area, fell about 72ft (22m) into the water.

The verdict followed an eight-day trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.

Fiscal depute Kristina Kelly, who was prosecuting, said BP operated Unity at the time, and Mr Anderson worked for Cape which was carrying out work on the platform.

Ms Kelly said that at about 04:00 on the day in question the scaffolder, who was not wearing a lifejacket, fell through an open grate into the sea. The alarm was raised and a fast-rescue craft found Mr Anderson face down in the water and he was taken aboard.

First aid was administered, but he had no pulse and was very cold. Resuscitation efforts continued until paramedic assistance arrived by helicopter, but Mr Anderson was pronounced dead.

The cause of death was given as head and chest injuries as a result of his fall.

Sheriff Graham Buchanan told the jury in his closing address last Friday that the defence argued the existence of a hard barrier around the open grating, in the form of scaffolding, ensured there was no risk as far as was reasonably practicable.

This is valid as of 17th July 2023.

A man has been fined and banned from being a company director for running an illegal waste site, following an investigation by the Environment Agency.

Martin Robert Hindmarsh, 47, of High Street, Stokesley, and his company B8 Waste Management Limited, were fined and ordered to pay costs totalling almost £26,000 for running the illegal waste site in Middlesbrough.

Hindmarsh was also banned from being a company director for two years and ordered to clear the site by the end of the year.

Hindmarsh appeared at Teesside Magistrates’ Court where he pleaded guilty to operating a waste site without a permit at Tame Road in Middlesbrough, failing to produce waste transfer notes, and failing to comply with a notice to clear the site of waste. The company pleaded guilty to operating a waste site without a permit.

The court heard that in May 2021 Hindmarsh submitted a request for advice to the Environment Agency, which indicated he wanted to operate a waste transfer station at the Middlesbrough site. The Agency replied with advice and was clear that activities must not start without an environmental permit in place.

In October the same year, the Environment Agency started to receive reports of vermin and large quantities of waste on the site. Officers attended and although the site was locked they could see around 100 tonnes of mixed commercial and domestic waste, including fridges, freezers and PVC window frames.

There was no environmental permit for the site, meaning it was an illegal operation.

The officers spoke to Hindmarsh and told him to clear the site, giving him numerous opportunities over the next six months to comply, and to also produce waste transfer notes from his activities.

This culminated in an official notice in May 2022 ordering him to clear the site by 24 July. A visit on the 1 August that year saw this had also not been complied with. On 6 December, the Environment Agency issued a second notice ordering that all waste transfer notes be produced.

To date both notices issued by the Environment Agency relating to the clearance of the site and production of waste transfer notes has not been complied with.

This is valid as of 17th July 2023.

(New Zealand)

Three helicopter tour operators, charged by WorkSafe New Zealand for health and safety failings related to Whakaari, have pleaded guilty to amended charges.

WorkSafe charged Volcanic Air Safaris Limited, Kahu NZ Limited and Aerius Limited under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 following a nearly 12-month investigation.

WorkSafe Chief Executive Phil Parkes said: “The survivors, and the family and whānau of those who passed, will be in many people’s thoughts. Whakaari was an absolute tragedy, and we remember everyone who was impacted.

“These pleas acknowledge the processes that should have been in place to look after people’s health and safety on the day Whakaari erupted.”

Six parties have now pleaded guilty to health and safety failings related to operations around Whakaari. Of the 22 people who died, one was a customer of Volcanic Air Safaris Limited. In addition, 19 White Island Tours customers and two employees died.

Volcanic Air Safaris Limited, Kahu NZ Limited, and Aerius Limited entered guilty pleas at the Auckland District Court.

This is valid as of 17th July 2023.

A company which flouted the rules to store highly flammable tyres on a Northamptonshire site has been fined £100,000 and ordered to pay costs of £7,463.

Exhaust Tyres and Batteries (Worcester) Limited exceeded the amount of waste they were legally allowed to deposit at Synergy Tyres Limited, Daventry, in total depositing around 250,000 of waste tyres.

Synergy Tyres Limited, Daventry, had two exemptions to store waste and mechanically treat end-of-life tyres. However, it did not have an environmental permit to store or treat large numbers of tyres on site and was required to keep these to a minimum (40 tonnes over seven days).

Environment Agency officers discovered that Exhaust Tyres and Batteries Limited had deposited thousands of tyres over the course of a year. They did this without checking that the site was authorised to accept those tyres.

Prosecuting for the Environment Agency, solicitor Sarah Dunne, told the court that Exhaust Tyres and Batteries (Worcester) Limited had shown “wilful blindness.” She said it was “common knowledge that there is a fire risk from the storage of waste tyres and that any responsible company should be aware of the regulations.”

The court also heard how the waste was stored close to residential premises and a neighbouring industrial site.

The Environment Agency first became aware that Exhaust Tyres and Batteries (Worcester) Limited regularly deposited tyres unlawfully at the Synergy site in February 2021. When checked by the Environment Agency, the company’s records show that this illegal activity had happened between January 2020 until late February 2021.

Officers also found Exhaust Tyres and Batteries (Worcester) records of the delivery and transfer of the waste tyres were incomplete tyres, breaching statutory regulations.

Sentencing Exhaust Tyres and Batteries (Worcester) Limited, District Judge Nick Watson said he was satisfied that the £100,000 fine imposed would, “…send a message to the Directors and Shareholders that they need to comply with environmental legislation.”

This is valid as of 17th July 2023.

A judge has fined the UK’s largest pub group £1.56m after it was found guilty of a health and safety breach which contributed to the “senseless and avoidable” death of a first-year university student queueing to get into a venue in Durham.

Olivia Burt, a 20-year-old natural sciences student from Milford on Sea in the New Forest, died in February 2018 when a heavy decorative screen being used to manage the queue into the city centre’s Missoula bar collapsed and fell on her.

A member of the sailing club, Burt had been waiting to get into a regular Wednesday event night popular with university sports teams.

The screen collapsed on Burt, who received an “unsurvivable” head injury, Teesside crown court heard.

Stonegate Pub Company had denied health and safety breaches but a jury found it guilty on Thursday of one charge.

Judge Howard Crowson said the bar’s management missed an opportunity to prevent Burt’s death when a similar screen collapsed about 30 minutes previously. He added that the screens were designed for decoration, not crowd control, and he said he did not accept the defence argument that the screens in themselves were not dangerous.

“Once the screen had fallen, there was obviously a risk it would do so again,” he said. “In this case, in my view, the breach led to the death of Olivia Burt.”

He said Burt’s family had suffered an “incomprehensible tragedy”, adding: “The sentence does not attempt to measure the worth of Olivia’s life. Olivia’s life is, of course, priceless.”

The judge also ordered the company to pay £225,774 in costs.

This is valid as of 10th July 2023.