A demolition company and its director have been sentenced after one of its workers suffered devastating crush injuries when his arms were trapped between two 10 tonne steel girders in an incident which occurred in October 2015.
In a Liverpool Crown Court, it was heard how an employee of S. Evans and Sons Limited was injured when the managing director, who was operating machinery to stack the girders, dropped one of the girders onto the employee’s arms, resulting in amputation to the left arm and right hand.
The HSE’s investigation found the company failed to apply appropriate control measures including ensuring the right equipment was used for the task. The managing director, Samuel Evans, was directly involved in the incident and found personally responsible for both the choice in equipment and the manner in which the task was performed.
Evans and Sons Limited of Ditton Road, Widnes pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 and Regulation 4(3) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. The company has been fined £150,000 and ordered to pay costs of £9,523.04
Company director, Samuel Evans, pleaded guilty to breaching two counts of Section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, in relation to the company’s failing of Section 2(1) of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 and Regulation 4(3) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.
Evans was sentenced to ten months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years and ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work.
Commenting after the hearing, HSE inspector Rohan Lye said: “If the company and its director had taken basic steps to decide how to do this routine task, and what control measures to use, they could have prevented this devastating incident resulting in life-changing injuries.”