Richard Blake, 63, suffered a shattered pelvis and broken hip when a 500kg marine hatch fell on him as he prepared it for inspection by a surveyor at Point Engineering (Hull) Ltd. As he was moving it into a vertical position using a sling and overhead crane, the hatch slipped, trapping Blake, a welder and fabricator, underneath. The surveyor, who was standing about one metre away from Blake, narrowly escaped injury himself.
Point Manufacturing (Hull) Ltd was charged by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) over the incident. The company pleaded guilty at Hull Crown Court to breaching Regulation 3(1)(a) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, and was ordered to pay a fine of £30,000, plus £24,577 costs.
Commenting on the case, HSE inspector Sarah Lee said: “If the job had been correctly planned and risk assessed then a safe way of doing the job could have been established. Sadly, it was not, which lead to Mr Blake suffering from these terrible injuries.”
