Cheshire farm owner fined after roofer dies in fall
A Cheshire farm owner has been fined after a man fell to his death from a forklift truck while attempting to repair the roof of a packing shed at his premises in Tarporley.
Denis Thornhill and his company D.S. Thornhill (Rushton) Limited were fined a combined £16,000 after 64-year-old Mark Young was killed at Moss Hall Farm on 1 February 2021.
Earlier this year, both Thornhill and the company been found guilty of breaching health and safety legislation following a six-week trial at Chester Crown Court. The jury cleared 78-year-old Thornhill on a charge of gross negligence manslaughter. They returned to the same court on 11 October 2024 to be sentenced.
During the trial, the court was told that on 29 January 2021, Mr Young, who worked as a roofer, had been asked to make repairs to a roof panel and fix a blocked gutter on the same building. However, as he was walking across the roof, he damaged a second roof panel so a replacement was purchased to carry out an additional repair.
He returned with his son three days later to complete the work and asked to be raised up to do it. Denis Thornhill arrived with a forklift truck that had a potato box balanced on its forks. Mr Young was lifted up inside the potato box to a height of around 16 feet, while his son, who was on the roof, attempted to reposition the panel from above. As Mr Young moved to one side of the potato box, it caused it to overbalance and he fell to the floor sustained serious head injuries.
Although paramedics were called, they were unable to resuscitate him and he was pronounced deceased at the scene.
HSE Inspector Ian Betley said after the hearing: “This was a tragic incident that could so easily have been avoided.
“The forklift truck and potato box were the wrong pieces of equipment for the job and never a suitable platform for working at height. The work should instead have been carried out using a tower scaffold, scissor lift, or a cherry picker.
“In bringing the forklift truck and potato box and using it to lift Mark at height, the company was in control of the work but had failed to implement proper planning and safe execution of it.
“All companies have a legal duty to ensure the safety of workers they employ or who carry out work for them. If that had happened in this case, then Mark’s life wouldn’t have been lost.”
A joint investigation by Cheshire Constabulary and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that on the day of the accident there was no safe system of work implemented for working at height and unsuitable work equipment was used. The potato box did not have the required safety features for a non-integrated work platform and had not been secured in a way to prevent it overbalancing. Additionally, the forklift truck had not been subjected to a thorough examination at the required frequency and was unsuitable for lifting people and Denis Thornhill was not formally trained in operating the forklift truck. Enforcement action was taken and a Prohibition Notice was served on the company prohibiting further work until a safe system was devised.
Company fined following crane collapse
A company has been fined after a crane collapsed at its site on Falmouth Docks, putting more than 250 people at risk.
Emergency services declared a major incident following the collapse at A&P Falmouth on 10 May 2017 with the surrounding area being evacuated and cordoned off.
The crane had been operating above Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) ship, Tidespring, when the driver noticed the jib was descending uncontrollably.
The driver managed to move the crane away from RFA Tidespring and over the dockside before it collapsed, with the jib landing on a cage of acetylene cylinders.
There were approximately 258 workers on site at the time.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found A&P Falmouth had failed to properly maintain the crane. Although the crane had been examined by a third-party, its recommendations regarding defects were not acted on by A&P Falmouth.
School trust fined after pupil injured
A school trust in Surrey has been fined after part of a pupil’s finger was amputated.
The five-year-old boy, a Year 1 pupil at Danetree Primary School in Epsom, had been leaving the toilet on 15 June 2022 when his right hand slipped and went into the hinge side of a door.
There was no door guard installed and he trapped his right hand in the door.
This led to the tip of his middle finger becoming detached as his right hand was stuck in the door.
A teacher found the tip of his middle finger, and the boy underwent surgery to re-attach his finger at St Georges Hospital in Tooting, London.
Although younger pupils in Key Stage 1 were taught in a newer building where hinge guards had been fitted on the doors, the incident occurred in a separate building where the older children in Key Stage 2 were taught.
The Key Stage 1 pupils would use the Key Stage 2 building at least once a week to use its library and learn about music and science. While in this building, the Key Stage 1 pupils were allowed to use the toilets unsupervised.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation into the incident found GLF Schools, the trust that runs Danetree Primary School, had failed to identify the risk to its Key Stage 1 pupils while using the toilets. This meant hinge guards were not installed on the toilet doors of the building where Key Stage 2 pupils were taught.
Contractor fined after worker left paralysed by falling tree
A contractor from Dorset has been fined after a tree fell onto a forestry worker and left him with life-changing injuries.
The 61-year-old man, who was 58 at the time, is now paralysed from the stomach down after the 21-metre ash tree landed on top of him at The Fonthill Estate in Salisbury, Wiltshire on 12 January 2022.
Gerald Hayward, who had been contracted as part of an ash dieback clearance programme, had been cutting the tree before it fell.
Mr Hayward, trading as G H Hayward Forestry Contractors, had been making a back cut to the tree when it fell in the wrong direction.
It then landed on the injured worker, who was standing in a nearby bridle path.
The worker, from Frome in Somerset, sustained eight broken ribs, a broken pelvis, two broken ankles, a collapsed lung and internal bleeding.
He was placed in an induced coma for two weeks and later spent four months in hospital.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found Mr Hayward, who was in charge of the tree felling, failed to implement a safe working zone around the tree as it was being felled. A safe working zone is usually twice the size of the tree, with only the felling operator permitted inside the zone. The tree fell in the unintended direction as the cut made by Mr Hayward did not leave a functioning hinge.
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