29.04.2004

HBG fined £150,000 for manual handling fatality

HBG Construction Southern Limited of London, formerly known as Kyle Stewart (1989) Limited, has been fined £150,000 and ordered to pay costs of £47,000, following an incident on a building site at 33 Old Broad Street, London EC2 on 21 February 1997.

The prosecution at Southwark Crown Court followed an investigation
initially by the City of London Police and then by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Mr Osman Kamara, an agency labourer, died after being struck on the head by a 190kg concrete lintel. Part of the building work involved the construction of a new electrical sub-station in the basement, during which attempts were made to lift the concrete lintel into position to form an opening for a ventilation panel in one of the exterior brick built walls.

At the time of the accident, construction of the sub-station was behind schedule. Mr Dominic Akyeampong, another agency labourer working with Mr Kamara, suffered bruising to his arm. Both were part of a five-man team attempting to manually lift the 190kg lintel into position when the bandstand platform they were using collapsed. As the lintel fell to the ground, it struck Mr Kamara on the head and Mr Akyeampong on his arm. Mr Kamara was taken to the Royal London Hospital, but died a few days later.

HBG Construction Southern Limited pleaded guilty to a contravention of Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work, etc., Act 1974, in that they failed to ensure that persons not in their employment were not exposed to risks to their safety.

Vertikal Comment

This case demonstrates two points that contractors need to be aware of.

1. That attention needs to be paid to the form of access used even for low level work at height, the “Bandstand platform” in this incident was most likely under a metre high and a simple form of access, yet clearly the five men and a 190kg lintel overwhelmed it, thus the inappropriate access method played a part in a mans death.

2. Manual handling has become a hot subject with the HSE; there are now many good and inexpensive products on the market such as manual material lifts, which can avoid such risks.