Workplace accident leads to company being fined £15k

A company has been fined £15,000 for an accident at work which led to an employee suffering a broken bone.

A.C.P (Concrete) Ltd - which is based in Cumbria - pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work 1974 Act following an incident that caused one of its workers to need a hip-to-toe leg cast for six weeks and crutches for a further four months.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted A.C.P after Jamie Graham sustained a hole in his shin as he was impaled on a nine-millimetre steel cable after a grip at the company's factory failed, releasing a 200-feet wire stretched at 2,000 lbs tension onto his leg.

Mr Graham had to be cut free by the fire brigade and it was revealed during the case at Workington Magistrates Court that A.C.P did not have a safe system of work in place for re-threading the steel cables.

Posted by Patrick White
 

24/08/2010 11:58