london-borough-council-fined-for-safety-failings

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

London borough council fined for safety failings | Media centre - HSE

[treequip]

Well at least they didn't describe him as a tree surgeon

 

 

A London borough council has been fined after a road worker suffered serious injury whilst cutting trees.

 

Southwark Crown Court heard how an employee of London Borough of Havering sustained a serious cut injury just above his left knee after a Sthil cut-off saw he was using was fitted with an inappropriate blade and used to cut tree roots and branches with.

 

The blade became stuck and on pulling it free the blade ran across the top of his left knee.

 

He suffered a deep cut above the left knee damaging ligaments and cartiledge requiring sixty stiches.

 

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the incident which occurred on 2 March 2015 found that the wrong equipment was being used for the task. No risk assessment was conducted for the use of the saw and blade.

 

A safe system of work should have been in place that identified suitable and compatible machinery for certain tasks.

 

London Borough of Havering, Town Hall, Main Road, Romford, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulations 4(2) and 4(3) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, and was fined £500,000 and ordered to pay costs of £8,240.

[Betula]

Maybe I've missed something but what about the workers responsibility to ensure the right equipment was being used and operating in the correct way

[treequip]

Maybe I've missed something but what about the workers responsibility to ensure the right equipment was being used and operating in the correct way

 

That would be a separate prosecution and report

[richy_B]

£500 k fine!

[eagleye]

Maybe I've missed something but what about the workers responsibility to ensure the right equipment was being used and operating in the correct way

 

I cant figure out how comes the council gets fined

surely the worker was not qualified to use a chain saw

so lets use a cut off saw instead which i assume he was competent to use if not why use it

if he was competent to use it sounds like they put a circular saw blade on it

so the workers still at fault for modifying it

no matter what rules/regulations councils/employers put in place dickheads like him still exist

[treequip]

I cant figure out how comes the council gets fined

 

 

The employer has a duty of care to their employees, the employee should not have been in a position to hurt himself.

 

The authority got fined for failing in that duty

[Gary Prentice]

Wonder what the Tree Officer thought about the act of setting into tree roots with any saw?

[eagleye]

The employer has a duty of care to their employees, the employee should not have been in a position to hurt himself.

 

The authority got fined for failing in that duty

 

i understand the duty of care bit

but if he is competent to use a cut off saw hes using it for something its not designed for

if hes not competent why use it

council workers are normally quick enough to kick up a fuss about the slightest

thing that's wrong or i'm not trained to do that so i'm not doing it

[eggsarascal]

Wonder what the Tree Officer thought about the act of setting into tree roots with any saw?

 

Silly bugger would have been better off using the digger bucket?