Safety and lack of communication

Safety and lack of communication – a worker was crushed to death by falling load from and overhead crane. The incident happened when two employees were using the same overhead rail lifting two individual loads, both unaware of the actions of the other. The two cranes collided and sent one of the loads, a three and a half tonne steel container, crashing to the ground. As a result one of the employees received fatal crush injuries.

The investigation showed that this had not been the first time such an incident had happened at the factory, but on the previous occasions luckily no one had been injured and no changes had been made by the company to improve safety following the near misses. The courts were told that there were no clear systems of work in place, which could have prevented any worker from being injured by an overhead crane. Anti-collision devices could have been fitted to the cranes or a safe method to ensure the two cranes could not come into contact with each other.

The company was fined £90,000 and ordered to pay £35,000 in fees.