NEWSFLASH IN THE COURTS


BEDFORD COMPANY PROSECUTED AFTER


TEENAGER KILLED Grundfos Pumps Limited, Leighton Buzzard, Bedford, pleaded guilty to safety failings after a trainee design engineer lost his life.


On 30th March 2009, 19-year-old trainee design engineer, Jake Herring, came into contact with a live 3 phase electrical system and died from his injuries. Jake was carrying out electrical testing work at the Grundfos Pumps Ltd factory in Windsor and was working unsupervised while testing a live electrical control panel.


PIRELLI TYRES FINED AFTER WORKER DIES


IN AUTOCLAVE Tyre manufacturer Pirelli has been fined £150,000 after an employee died when he became trapped in an industrial autoclave for more than two hours.


George Falder was found dead at the factory on Dalston Road in Carlisle on 30th September 2012 in a machine used to heat parts of tyres to temperatures of up to 145°C.


Pirelli Tyres was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after an investigation found the company did not have a system in place to make sure the autoclave was checked before it was switched on.


Carlisle Crown Court heard that Mr Falder was last seen alive on CCTV footage at around 2.45pm during a Sunday shift. Just over an hour later, a colleague shut the door on the five-metre long industrial autoclave and began the operating cycle. The 48-year-old’s body was found inside just after 6pm.


The court was told the heavy, circular pressure-door on the


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The company appeared at Reading Crown Court on Monday 11th May 2015 and was fined £300,000, with total costs of £115,000 after pleading guilty to breaching the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 3, (1) (a), and the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 Reg 3, (1)(a), contrary to Regulation 14.


An unsafe system of work was found to be the cause of Jake’s death. Grundfos Pumps Ltd had not adequately risk assessed the testing of live electrical panels to identify a safe system of work and failed to provide suitable training and supervision to undertake 3 phase live testing.


autoclave could not be opened from the inside, and there was no way for anyone inside the machine to stop the cycle once it had begun.


The industrial autoclave was used to heat rubber tyre beads. During its operation, steam would be piped into the vessel under pressure, creating a deadly atmosphere containing little to no oxygen.


The HSE investigation found that, on some occasions, employees including Mr Falder had entered the


WORKERS POTENTIALLY EXPOSED TO


ASBESTOS A laboratory design and installation specialist has been fined after exposing workers, pupils and teachers to asbestos material at a school in Suffolk.


The incident in July 2012 occurred during refurbishment work to modernise parts of Newmarket College School’s Science block. During the work, managed by Labform Ltd, sub-contractors disturbed asbestos as they were removing a wall and channelling the floor.


The Cheshire firm was prosecuted at Ipswich Magistrates Court on Tuesday 12th May after an investigation found that the company had not arranged for a detailed Refurbishment and Demolition Asbestos Survey to be undertaken, as was required.


Labform Ltd, of Lymm, Cheshire, was fined £22,400 and ordered to pay £11,741 in costs after pleading guilty to four breaches of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012.


autoclave to pick up fallen beads when the pressure-door was open between cycles.


Despite this, Pirelli had failed to identify the autoclave as a confined space posing a serious risk. There were therefore no measures in place, such as instructions or signs, to prevent access to the autoclave. There was also no system for checking the autoclave before the door was shut and the operating cycle was started.


Pirelli Tyres Ltd was fined £150,000 and ordered to pay £46,706 in prosecution costs after pleading guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.


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