Brick giant Hanson Building Products Ltd has been fined a total of £113,660 under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, after a workman fell from a tower and injured his spine at a Stewartby clay pit. The man had worked at the Quest Pit for 40 years when part of a structure on which he was standing collapsed back on 9 March 2005. He fractured a vertebra, which meant plates and rods had to be inserted to stabilise his spine. As a result, he spent almost a year in a body brace and has only just returned to work.
Prosecutor Jonathan Ashley-Norman, said that two conveyor belts at the quarry were shut down as it was thought a part needed to be removed. In order to do that, one belt had to be cut which led to a set of weights unintentionally falling to the ground. It was later in the day as the weights were being restored to their original position that the worker climbed the tower and a cross beam he was standing on collapsed. Hanson had failed to carry out an adequate risk assessment and have since removed the towers and put in place alternative systems.
Speaking after the case, Health and Safety (HSE) inspector John Berezansky stressed the importance of companies properly planning work at height, "Statistically, across all industries, falls from height are the most common cause of fatal injury and the third most common cause of major injury to employees. Such falls are preventable when work is planned properly, the risks assessed and the correct equipment used."
