16.08.2010

£34,000 for tower crane near miss

UK based London Tower Crane Hire & Sales has been charged almost £34,000 in fines and costs following the failure of a hook, which resulted in a 'near miss' in 2007.

The hook failure caused a 4,000kgs load to drop 36 metres to the ground at Hertfordshire Regional College in Turnford on November 3rd 2007.

The four tonne load fell next to a regularly used footpath and demolished the site boundary fence and damaged a college building.
London Tower Crane Hire & Sales was fined £18,000 and ordered to pay costs of £15,837.45 for breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 and Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations (LOLER) 1998.

HSE Inspector Norman Macritchie said: "It was a matter of good fortune that no-one was injured in this entirely avoidable incident. Those undertaking lifting operations have absolute duties to plan, supervise and carry them out safely. Maintenance staff had identified safety-critical faults in the crane yet simple controls needed to prevent use of defective equipment were not implemented. Poor communication and teamwork, together with inadequate supervision, all contributed to this incident. This case has important lessons for all those operating lifting equipment and especially tower cranes."

London Tower Crane issued a statement following the verdict which said: “In response to this incident we have implemented dynamic and robust safety systems addressing the specific failings of this incident and wider risks across our operations. We welcome the comments from the HSE and have continually strived since this incident to cooperate with the executive to learn these critical lessons. We are satisfied that the circumstances which contributed to this incident in November 2007, no longer exist within our business and that our systems and procedures are currently industry leading.”