03.06.2004

Two companies fined £110,000 for site death

Two construction companies were fined a total of £110,000 at Stafford Crown Court on Thursday, 27 May 2004. The case followed an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the death of Mr Mark Warrallo at the Seedy Mill Water Treatment Works site in Lichfield, Staffordshire on 17 January 2002.

Morrison Construction Ltd (now known as AWG Construction Services Ltd) and RMD Kwikform Ltd had earlier both pleaded guilty to health and safety offences. Morrison Construction Ltd was in charge of the construction site to which Mr Warrallo, a driver employed by co-defendant RMD Kwikform Ltd, was delivering a load of steel formwork. Mr Warrallo was killed when a mobile crane at the site was unloading his lorry and a bundle of steel formwork work weighing just under a tonne fell onto him.

HSE Principal Inspector Joy Jones, who led the investigation, said:

“Mark Warrallo tragically lost his life in this incident and HSE’s thoughts are with his family at this time. Lifting operations are by their very nature dangerous. That is why the law requires that all lifting operations, no matter how simple they may appear to be, should be properly planned and supervised by persons who are competent for the task.”

RMD Kwikform Ltd, Warrallo’s employer, was fined a total of £100,000 and ordered to pay costs to HSE of £9,000 in respect of three offences: Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act (HSWA) 1974; and regulations 3(1)(a) and 10(1)(b) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (MHSWR) 1999.

Morrison Construction Ltd was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay costs of £40,000 to HSE for an offence under regulation 8(1)(c) of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations (LOLER) 1998. which states:

‘ Every employer shall ensure that every lifting operation involving lifting equipment is –

(a) properly planned by a competent person;
(b) appropriately supervised; and
(c) carried out in a safe manner.”