A construction company and two workers have been sentenced after a worker suffered an electric shock whilst working on a farm.  On 30 September 2019 an employee of Connop and Son Limited was working on Worton Grounds Farm, Deddington, Banbury, Oxon and pouring concrete when the floating arm of a mobile concrete pump came into contact with an overhead powerline.

In January 2018, S&S Quality Building Contractors Limited was inspected by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to investigate health and safety failings after it was reported that people were sleeping on a construction site at Regent House, Brentwood, Essex. 

Food manufacturing giant Nestlè has been ordered to pay more than £800,000 after a worker’s arm was drawn into a roller mechanism on a conveyor machine.  On 30 November 2020, a maintenance technician was investigating a problem on the conveyor belt of a machine used to make chocolate sweets.  When he went underneath the machine, he reached to steady himself and the sleeve of what he was wearing was caught in the roller above his head. This dragged his left arm into the roller and was trapped between the roller and the belt. He was unable to free his arm and he shouted for help. The 25-year-old sustained life-changing injuries.

A meat production company has been fined £440,000 after a security guard at an abattoir was seriously injured by a vehicle passing through the site gate.  The 63-year-old security guard, who was working for an independent security company, was on duty at the gated entrance of the Dunbia (UK) abattoir at Hatherleigh, near Okehampton, Devon early on the morning of November 29, 2018.

A Kent groundwork contractor has been fined after a worker sustained serious burns following petrol being thrown on a bonfire.  On 24 June 2020, a 26-year-old groundworker employed by Kent County Surfacing Ltd was working on a new residential development in Ramsgate, Kent when a co-worker used petrol on a bonfire. The groundworker was unaware of this and after he was instructed to light the bonfire, it engulfed him in flames as the petrol vapour ignited. The worker suffered serious burns and underwent two skin graft operations to his left hand, left arm, left side of torso and both his legs.

PJ Hegarty & Sons UK Ltd is the latest firm to use an Intelligent Fingerprinting solution to promote positive safety culture across UK building sites – potentially including staff sub-contracted to HS2 project.  The UK arm of construction company PJ Hegarty, has selected a fingerprint sweat technology for employee drug screening. Following ‘rapid expansion’ in the first half of 2022, the building & civil engineering contractor will use Intelligent Fingerprinting’s non-invasive testing approach – where a ‘simple and reliable’ sweat sample is used to screen quickly for very recent use of cannabis, cocaine, opiates and methamphetamine, with on-site results available in ten minutes.

Contractor Bedford Transmissions Limited has been fined after a man fell from height and was seriously injured at a food factory.  Bedford Transmissions Limited, trading as BT Lerson, had been contracted by Veetee Rice to move and replace machinery within their factory in Rochester. 

A building firm has been fined after putting workers working at height at risk during the refurbishment of a former warehouse building in London and for breaching a Prohibition Notice.  Shiva Ltd, a property investment company, were using a site-made cradle during the renovation of the five-story building on Bermondsey Street in the south-east of the capital.

Two companies and two people have been sentenced after a teenage construction worker was fatally injured while working on a house-build construction site in Lincolnshire.  P & R Plant Hire (Lincolnshire) Limited, D. Brown (Building Contractors) Limited, Brent Woods and Darrell Tripp were all fined following the death of 18-year-old Josh Disdel.

On 23 April 2018, Christopher Barnes – a 69-year-old lorry driver working for Devereux Developments Ltd – delivered doors to a site in Gloucestershire.   After arriving on site, Christopher opened the curtain doors to his trailer and released the load-securing straps. However, some of the straps – which were suspended from the roof of the trailer – were tangled. Christopher’s attempts to free them from ground level were unsuccessful, so he climbed onto the trailer’s cargo bed and then onto the load itself to try again. Unfortunately, he stepped backwards off the load and fell 2.3 metres onto the concrete floor of the yard below. Christopher was taken to hospital but sadly passed away from his injuries the following day.