Three companies have been fined after a lift truck engineer was seriously injured while working at Pirelli Tyres’ factory in Carlisle.  Ivan Weightman sustained fractures to his back and leg when two heavy metal skips fell on top of him, trapping the 47-year-old against the ground on 14 November 2019.

Three individuals and a company have been sentenced after a mother-of-eight was catapulted from a fairground ride in Hillingdon, London.  Mrs Khadra Ali spent four months in hospital after she was ejected from the Xcelerator ride at the Funderpark funfair in Yiewsley on 10 April 2018. Her family continue to provide her with the support she needs after suffering multiple fractures to her back, hips, pelvis, ribs, both collarbones as well as internal bleeding and a significant head injury.

Two companies have been sentenced after a worker fell from a scissor lift and fractured his skull, leaving him in an induced coma.  The electrician, employed by Optilight Electrical Services Ltd, had been repairing light fittings at Expert Tooling and Automation Ltd’s site on Sayer Drive, Coventry when he fell from a scissor lift and landed on the factory floor.

A Yorkshire metals recycling company has been fined £1.2m after a worker was injured after being struck by a wagon at a processing site.  On 10 August 2020 an employee of CF Booth Limited was walking across the site yard in Rotherham when he was struck by a moving 32-tonne skip wagon. The man was not wearing his hi-vis jacket and did not see the wagon approaching. The wagon driver did not see the employee prior to the collision due to concentrating on manoeuvring the vehicle around some low-level skips which had been placed on the corner near where the employee was crossing the yard.

The safety alert is aimed at organisations in the waste and recycling sector operating vehicles with hydraulically operated rear doors, hatches, body sections etc.   It follows a fatal accident when a person was working under the top-hinged hydraulically powered rear door of a road sweeper.

The Vehicles don’t crash – people do! conference at the National Space Center in Leicester hosted by National Highways and Driving for Better Business, focused on what health and safety professionals should be doing to increase driver-centric safety measures.  Mel Clarke, Director of Health, Safety and Wellbeing at National Highways began the conference asking: “Is it acceptable that around five people will die on our roads today?”

A company and its director have been sentenced after workers were exposed to asbestos and its potential harmful effects.  Inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) visited Eye Track Limited’s site in Stretford, Manchester, and found an uncontrolled spread of asbestos containing materials around the premises.

A housing company based in Kent has been fined £528,000 after an employee repairing a fence post inadvertently struck an underground cable, suffering burns to his face.  The MHS Homes employee and a colleague had been tasked by the company to repair three fence posts in a back garden of a tenant on 10 January 2023. They had already repaired two of the posts and started on a third, when one of the workers struck an underground electrical cable as he tried to break through some concrete using a breaker.

Osbourne Clarke provide a UK Regulatory Outlook April 2024 - read on:

A new law is to be introduced making assaulting a retail worker a standalone criminal offence – but unions say the government action is too little too late.  The Prime Minister launched a retail crime crackdown this month after statistics showed 90% of retail workers have been abused by customers. The initiative, launched to root out prolific and violent shoplifters is called Project Pegasus.